Surviving Ouroboros
by TempduLoupe
Summary: They are children of the gods, born among the humans to bring balance to the world. The only problem is they don't remember who they are. Will Eddie and Nina realize their destinies when their only clues are dreams. Will their love survive the arduous quest that all Chosen Ones must take? The often fatal Journey of the Ouroboros! (Renamed from Son of Anubis, Daughter of Isis.)
1. The Blooming of a Rose

House of Anubis:  
Disclaimer: I don't own House of Anubis

A/N: This story is written as if season three never happened. It's written as a continuation after season 2. No KT appearing and DEFINITELY no Nina leaving. This is also a Neddie fic, if you don't like don't read. This story is AU from HOA's line  
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Chapter 1: Prologue

"They're breath taking! What type of flower are they?" Amneris wondered aloud as she breathed in the scent the flowers gave off.

Amneris enjoyed many fine luxuries in life. Most of them gifts from the overreaching King who sought to lure her to his bed. She had rebuffed him since he set eyes on her at the tender age of twelve and yet the pugnacious man refused to accept her rejection and had done all but order her to lie with him.

She knew she should be thankful for what he gave her, and she would be if it were not for the fact that he only wanted her as a broodmare. His wife has already birthed two still born daughters and it was well known through the kingdom that he wanted the blonde girl in belief that her status as a 'blessed' would bear him strong sons.

"They are roses," Khai replied as he looked up thoughtfully at the shimmering night sky, "The seeds were a gift to the pharaoh. Your lover, if I am to believe the rumors."

Amneris shot a glare back at him, "The rumors are NOT to be believed. I would not lie with that incestuous bigot unless I was bound, gagged and drugged!"

Khai simply chuckled as if he expected such a rebuttal.

"What a lucky happenstance!"

"Lucky? What is lucky about my rebuffing the king's offer?" Amneris asked haughtily, "I'm not yet twenty and I am not so hideous that no one can look upon me without disgust!? "

With a summarizing glance around him, Khai checked the entrance to the temple courtyard for guards who might tell the king of his actions.

"Not lucky for him, lucky for me."

Khai pulled the lovely young priestess flush against his body with a hand on her waist and another on her neck.

Before she could protest his lips were pressed against hers.

The amorous king had on more than one occasion forced a kiss upon her.

This however was a very different experience.

None of the revulsion that she felt with the king's attacks was present, instead a languid heat had filled the pit of her stomach melting her body against him as his gentle, sensual kisses brought down her defenses.

She could barely think.

But she had sworn herself to Anubis as a priestess. Such a relationship was not an option for her.

It took everything she had to pull herself away from the intoxicating sensations he was invoking. She had had a crush on him since they were children. Why couldn't he have shown his preference before she had sworn herself a virgin?!

"Khai? We can't do this? I'm a priestess, I cannot be with a man in such a way unless the pharaoh permits it and I know for certain that the pharaoh will not allow anyone but himself to have me."

"Be damned the pharaoh, my love is permit enough!" Khai whispered as he pushed a blond curl behind her ear.

Her violet eyes widened in concern as she stepped back in surprise.

"Do not say such blasphemous things!" she scolded fearful that the gods would smite him where he stood.

His normally dark green eyes suddenly flashed the brilliant blue of the noon day sky.

"It is not blasphemous, love. What the pharaoh does not permit means nothing! For the gods forged us both, as two halves of the same whole. I am the night where the only light is that which the moon gives. You are the day and are darkened only by the fingers of shadows. Together we are the balance. Life and death, yin and yang, the push and pull of the tides! We are servants of Ma'at!"

Amneris took several steps back, this time for fear of the man with the glowing eyes. Not once in all the years that she had known him had he been anything other than cordial.

It was true she had fancied Khai for nearly as long as she had known him, but here he was with eyes like blue embers and a burning gaze. His words upset her more so. Such blasphemy would not go unpunished.

"Khai?! I do not know what game it is that you play or what magics you have dabbled so willfully in, but I implore you to desist!"

"Neri, please" Khai began, this time using the pet name he had given her within a week of their meeting nine years ago.

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She had been eight the first time her father had brought her to the pharaoh's court.

It had still been under King Akhenaten's rule and his son Prince Tutankhamen had not yet usurped him.

Amneris had been presented to the king as one of the rare 'blessed' children. A cause for celebration in the society.

She had been born with golden hair, violet eyes and milk colored skin to parents entirely opposite in phenotype as the moon is to a tree. The priests had proclaimed her to be the blessed product of the goddess Isis, though no one knew why the goddess had done such a thing.

Like Amneris, Khai too was a 'blessed' child. Although different in appearance as he was born with eyes of emerald, burnished gold hair and skin the color of Saharan sand.

Unlike Amneris however, he had been made aware upon his sixteenth birthday nearly two years ago, who his divine parent was, as well as his purpose amongst the humans.

According to lore Osiris only had one son, Horus, whose mother was Isis. However this was untrue. Osiris had another son that only a select few were aware of. They were unaware simply because Osiris' wife Isis, was not the mother of his second son, her insidious sister Nephthys was.

Most humans believed that Anubis, the god of the dead, was the product of a union between the goddess Nephthys and the god Set.

This, however, was a lie crafted by Nephthys to protect her child, Anubis, until he was old enough to protect himself.

His true heritage would not be discovered for another five hundred years and then only by the most important of people.

And so it was that, Anubis, after nearly half a millennia of life, was told of his heritage.

Osiris at this time, was beginning to notice untoward changes in the human world, and saw a means to fix it in his ill begotten son.

Upon first meeting with his true father, Anubis was given orders by Osiris to create a human blood line.

So in an attempt to win his father's favor, Anubis sired a demi-god with Ma'at the goddess of truth and balance. Their child was destined to act as the pantheons champion in the mortal realm.

A realm with which the gods could not directly interact, without the direst of consequences.

And so Khai was born on the second day, of the second month, of the second year of the century, having been placed into the body of a mortal woman, who had prayed for a child for many years.

Khai was the grandson of Osiris and as the gods mandated the first True Osirian marked not just as all 'blessed' were with ethereal beauty and coloring but also with the mark of the gods.

A black Ankh emblazed with magic across his back.

Loved by both his divine and mortal parents, the godling lived a 'blessed' life.

Less than a moon cycle after his first birthday, Isis learned of the Osirian. Fortunately, instead of anger as her husband had expected, as well as the death of the infant, the wise goddess took pity on the child. Knowing the import of his survival, she instead crafted an equal for him.

Her reason was simple enough. She too wanted a hand in the future of mankind.

Isis created a beautiful baby girl, whose skin was molded from the whitest of marble with hair formed from filaments of the finest gold and eyes from sparkling amethysts.

To mark the child's importance she branded her with the black Ankh of the gods and animated her with her own blood.

Ma'at fearing treachery from the betrayed Isis blessed the goddess' of magics daughter with purity, morals, and an unbreakable love for her own son, to prevent Isis from using her daughter as a weapon against Khai.

And so Amneris was born on the seventh day, of the seventh month, one year after Khai had been born.

The priestess attending her birth recognized her as a daughter of Isis the moment the eye of Horus pendant appeared around her neck, mere minutes after birth. That, along with the mark of the god and the features of the 'blessed', made her a special child indeed.

Among the gods Isis mandated that her daughter would be the Paragon, the Chosen one, with magics of her own.

The Paragon and the Osirian would be two total opposites, working in harmony to bring peace and balance to the supernatural aspects of the world.

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The memory of his father's explanation finished running through his head as he took a step towards the frightened girl.

"Neri, please let me explain," Khai implored, "I'll stand right here, so you do not have keep backing up."

Amneris stopped backing up and took in his concerned face, "A-alright. Explain."

"Anubis is my real father, he was ordered to sire me so that the gods would have a mortal agent in the human world. When Isis found out she created you so that she too would have a hand in the world. Isis and my mother Ma'at worked together and made you to be my other half, my equal and mandated that as soul mates we would bring balance to the world. I was born to love you and whether you have realized it or not, you were born to love me."

She simply stared wide eyed at her friend.

It was true that she had always felt this unknown connection with him. Could it also be true, that the gods had made her with such a purpose as to bring balance to the world?

She took an involuntary step towards him.

Khai smiled as relief washed over him. He didn't know what he would have done if she had rejected him. He was hardwired to love her and only her. To live without her would have been excruciating.

"I feel it," Neri whispered, "I do love you…I'm just…afraid."

"There is nothing to be afraid of. We were literally made for each other."

"I'm not afraid of us…I'm afraid of the pharaoh. He's vindictive. If he learns that you've so much as patted my hand in a non-platonic fashion, he'll have us both killed," Neri explained.

"Damn the consequences," Khai announced with a grin. Once more he pulled her in for a heated kissing session that did not end until the moon had set and the sun tinged the eastern horizon pink.

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Eddie woke with a start as the dream abruptly ended at the sound of his alarm clock beeping.

'Why did Nina keep calling me Khai?' he thought to himself, 'and WOW, kissing Nina was incredible, even if it was only a dream.'

He sighed as he pulled aside the blankets and slowly rose from the bed, stretching as he went.

'Damn,' Eddie sighed mentally, 'stupid dreams.'

His boxers were tented from memory of him pushing dream Nina up against the garden wall.

"Uuug," came a noise from Fabian's bed as the boy started waking up.

Guilt suddenly flooded through him as he realized that it wasn't just a wet dream he had. It had been a wet dream about his best friend's girlfriend.

Grabbing his towel, Eddie slipped out of the room and made a bee line for the bathroom, intent on fixing his problem with a cold shower.

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Nina stood in front of the girls' bathroom mirror, brushing her teeth vigorously as she tried to forcibly forget the image of Eddie, with his flashing blue eyes and the way his lips felt against her neck as he pushed her against the garden wall.

"Damn you, Khai," Nina muttered to herself absentmindedly. The fact that she had just referred to Eddie as Khai didn't even register as abnormal in her hormone riddled mind.

Damn dreams.

She felt guilty for mentally cheating on Fabian with his best friend. What was wrong with her?!

Spitting out the toothpaste and rinsing her mouth out, Nina quickly dressed and headed down the stairs.

By the Gods, breakfast was going to be awkward.

The thought stopped her short.

By the Gods?

Shaking her head of the mental typo Nina continued on, trying to forget the weird thought.

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A/N: I wrote this to get it out of my head and I'm hoping to make it a multi-chapter full length story.

My second one ever to be posted where others could read it

Read and Review if you want me to continue :)


	2. Why do we look like them?

A/N: thank you SO much for the reviews :)

Read and review

Chapter 2 Awkward Breakfast

Eddie was the last to the table, having taken the time for a prolonged cold shower.

Luckily there was still an ample amount of food to feed the plethora of growing boys that were housed there.

"You know other people would like to use the shower too," Jerome called him out as Eddie sat down and piled food atop his plate.

"Well, you can understand my not knowing that when it smells like you frequently don't," Eddie shot back.

"OOOOH, he got you there Clark," Patricia laughed, "You really do need to stop wearing that cologne, it smells like the back end of a donkey."

Jerome looked disgruntled for a moment.

"Well I for one like the way he smells," Mara announced pointedly.

"And she's the only one with an opinion that matters," Jerome smiled smugly.

"Ugh get a room you two," Fabian remarked as he passed a quiet Nina a butter knife.

Breakfast continued like so for another five minutes, the only two not really participating in the furthered conversations were Eddie and Nina.

"Hey Eddie could you pass me the jam?" Fabian asked.

Eddie looked up as if Fabian had just accused him of kicking his cat, "Uh yeah sure. Anything for you buddy?"

"Thanks? Are you alright? You seem a little off." Fabian asked.

"Off? Not all! Why would I be off?" Eddie stuttered as he reached over the silent Nina to hand Fabian the strawberry preserves.

Fabian quickly removed the jar from his out stretched hand, allowing Eddie to extricate his arm, during which time it gently brushed Nina's wrist.

CRACK.

The two jumped apart as if they been shocked, the glass in front of them cracked nearly in half for apparently no reason.

"I'm so sorry, Neri!" Eddie said suddenly, "Are you hurt?"

Both of them to froze as they turned and looked directly into each others eyes.

"What did you just call me?" Nina asked her, eyes wide in horrified surprise.

"Nina?" Eddie back pedaled. He couldn't believe he had actually called her that!

Stupid dream!

"No you called me Neri," Nina accused.

Before he could continue his denial, she grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and dragged him from the room until they were out of ear shot of their staring house mates.

"Did….did you have a dream last night?" Nina whispered uncertainly.

"Did you?" Eddie replied stupidly.

"Just answer the question Eddie. Did you or did you not have a dream last night in which we were in ancient Egypt and I was a priestess named Amneris and you were a boy named Khai?"

"Wow, okay, that was creepily accurate," Eddie responded, "Yes, I had a similar dream…and Um does a make-out session in a garden mean anything to you?"

Nina turned bright red and nodded her head infinitesimally to acknowledge his words, "It didn't feel like a dream," she espoused the conversation, "It seemed more l-"

"Like a memory," they finished in stereo, their expression mirrored masks of mixed horror and surprise.

"Why do we look like them?" Nina whispered as she looked into his currently green eyes.

"I…I don't know. Maybe we could ask Fabian to research-"

"NO! Fabian must NEVER know about this. He'd be devastated if he found that I spent the majority of last night making out with his best friend as he pushed me up against a wall!"

The two of them blushed scarlet at the memory.

"You're right, he'd kill me if he knew I woke up with a boner over his girlfriend," Eddie muttered absentmindedly.

"You what?" Nina asked confused.

"Nothing! We should probably finish breakfast, class starts in twenty minutes and I don't like working on an empty stomach."

Eddie nearly ran as he headed back towards the dining room.

"Eddie, wait!" Nina called out causing him to stop his escape, "Meet me at the library after school I want to research whatever it is that's going on."

Pausing for a moment to consider, Eddie finally nodded before quickly walking out of the hallway.

With a sigh Nina disregarded her own rumbling stomach and began to walk to class early, all the while trying her best to repress the feeling of his lips on her skin.

'Gods I'm a horrible person,' she thought as she exited Anubis house and walked across the lawn.

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A/n: short sorry please review :)


	3. The important difference of A and The

A/N: Thanks for the reviews they make me want to write

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Chapter 3: Discovery

A week had passed by and the pair's research had been entirely unfruitful. It seemed almost as if anything with more than a mention of Amneris or the Osirian had been pulled from the library's extensive Egyptian section.

In fact the search had been so dismal, that Nina would have called it off, if it were not for the fact that each night she was plagued by more memories in the shape of dreams. Six months of memories had been crammed into the last six nights of sleep, each night imparting more and more pieces of her ancestors life.

Lately, the turn the dreams had taken, was more than graphic and disgruntling, which led her to believe that trouble was on the horizon.

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"We've got to stop meeting like this Amneris. One might think we're up to something," Khai grinned playfully as his lover threw his clothes at him.

"I'm pretty sure we were just up to something," she smiled in return, "Although you do need to find a less conspicuous means of calling on me."

"What asking for you at the front gate isn't subtle?" he replied blithely. He had actually snuck in through the window, after having waited nearly an hour for a changing of the guards, so that no one spotted him.

She merely rolled her eyes as she continued watching him dress, "Just be careful, the girls and I were warned of a prowler spotted on the temple grounds during the nights."

A comfortable silence fell between them as Khai pulled his shirt on.

"Draw a portrait it will last longer," Khai joked as he noticed her eyes upon his half-dressed body.

"Has anyone ever told you, that you're childish?" she giggled as he pulled his pants on under his tunic.

"Yes…You, every day," he replied, "And seeing as you love me and I'm childish, wouldn't that make you a pedophile?"

He dodged the pillow she threw at him.

Knock knock.

The couple froze in their antics and stared at the door.

Amneris looked at him with imploring eyes, to which he merely nodded in understanding. The transmission of thoughts between each other had been more than helpful in keeping their relationship a secret.

Khai grabbed the last of his clothes and vaulted over the balcony rail to the ground twenty feet below. Any ordinary human would have broken several bones if they even survived the impact. Luckily they had discovered that their creators had made them of stronger stuff than any mortal.

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KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The door was rapped again, this time with more urgency.

"One moment, I am not decent." Amneris called out to the servant girl she assumed to be on the other side of the door.

"If you had even a thought of decency, you would not have broken your vow and fornicated with that," Hedrea sneered as she opened the door. The older girl hated Amneris with a passion because she believed Amneris was only promoted through the ranks so quickly because of her 'blessed' status.

"My, my someone is hypocritically pejorative today," Amneris spat back. On more than one occasion Amneris had caught Hedrea in a compromising position with several different guards.

"Say what you want….I'm not the one the trying to have an affair against the Pharaoh's orders. I'm sure he'd just love to hear all about your little lover boy," Hedrea snapped.

Amneris let her magic flow to her eyes, leaving them an angry purple, "What is it you are even doing here, Hedrea?"

"We have morning ritual today, I was sent to get you. Or did you forget your duties because you were too busy rolling around with the little lord," the brunette nearly snarled as she turned on her heel and marched out the door.

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"I'm telling you! Anything we might find on the subject is almost definitely going to be in Frobisher's study," Nina reasoned, "He always kept the best of everything for himself."

"While I agree on that point you seem to be forgetting one tiny detail," Eddie espoused.

"And what would that be," Nina responded as she walked into the kitchen with her new diary in hand.

For the past week she had taken to writing down the research they had found and anything she thought to be of worth to their investigation. Everywhere she went the journal went, simply because the 'experiences' and odd occurrences were beginning to occur outside of the class room.

Just yesterday they had been sitting in class when the 'Pencil Episode' occurred.

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On this particular day Mr. Sweet was drawling on about ions and Nina had been sitting at an empty desk two rows from the back.

Two weeks ago Fabian or Amber would have immediately claimed the seat next to her. Now without question in every class, the newest member of Sibuna seemed to automatically fill it.

Something that would have irked Nina, if it were not for the fact that she herself felt the very same draw to be near Eddie.

What made this day so unusual was not the seating arrangement or even the subject they were learning. No it was the #2 yellow wood pencil that was sitting between the pair on their desk.

For the last five minutes it had been silently rolling away from both of their hands as they each took turns attempting to grab hold of it. It was almost as if the pencil was a magnet that was being repelled by an unknown force in their hands.

After numerous tries that merely sent it rolling across the table, Nina gave Eddie a look that clearly said 'we should try doing it at the same time.'

Bringing their hands over the pencil on opposite sides they attempted to once again snatch it from the table.

Before either of them could react the pencil exploded into tiny splinters of wood that froze an inch from where they had separated from each other as Nina brought her hands up and covered her face. Fortunately for the duo the sound of the pencil cracking into a hundred pieces was masked by the equally loud shattering of the fluorescent light above their heads from their hands touching mutually on the pencil.

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Mr. Sweet had been unwilling to let people think he was a nepotistic teacher and had practically jumped at the chance to prove otherwise by giving his son a detention.

And so it was that Nina was hyperventilating alone in Robert Frobisher-Smythes secret study.

Why was she hyperventilating you ask?

Simple.

Nina stared down in horror at Roberts diary which had just informed her that there were two different types of Paragons and Osirians.

You could be A Paragon or THE Paragon. Or You could be A Osirian or THE Osirian.

The difference was that A Paragon or A Osirian was merely a descendant of the originals that was guided by the spirits of their predecessor's and could be male or female, while THE Paragon or THE Osirian were direct reincarnations of the originals with THE Paragon being Amneris in an exact replica of her old body and THE Osirian in an exact replica of his old body.

Such a thing had not occurred since the crusades.

According to Roberts diary, which was filled with information he had gleaned from his daughter Sarah who had been A Paragon, Amneris often spoke to her but in no way controlled her actions, thoughts or feelings.

In another entry in the diary she found the translation of a scroll Robert had found that was apparently a written account of what had happed to the last True Paragon and Osirian during the Crusades.

It explained that for the first sixteen years of her life she had no recollection of who she had been or of her powers until she became reunited with Khai. That with each dream she became more and more aware of herself until she came to the realization that the dreams were not memories belonging to an ancestor but her own and that Khai experienced this.

It continued to explain that she was herself and yet also Amneris and that there was no distinguishing difference between the two entities.

As if she had merely forgotten who she was for sixteen years and then suddenly regained all her memories.

Nina was having trouble taking it all in.

How was it that she could be herself and someone else? Would she forget who she was and just be overtaken by some stranger? And what did this mean for her relationship with Fabian?

She loved him.

It wasn't fair that after nearly two years of trying to overcome the obstacles that separated them that they would be parted because she was going to be possessed by a women who had eyes only for Eddie.

She sighed deeply.

"What's wrong?" Eddie's voice called out as he entered the room to find Nina dry sobbing.

Without hesitation Eddie went to her side and wrapped his arms around the seated Nina as if he hadn't seen her only an hour ago.

Nina didn't respond immediately, instead she buried her face in the crook of his neck and began crying as she explained, "They aren't someone else's memories, they're ours."

Eddie wrapped her even tighter in his arms, "I know."

She stiffened in his arms as she pushed back so she could see his face.

"You know?"

"Yes….I'm not just having the dreams we share. I was also visited by my father Anubis. He explained what was happening and how we were needed to prevent a great evil from being released upon the world."

The blonde girl stared confused at him before her expression hardened, "We'll stop it."

"Just like that? No saying that it isn't our job or that I'm lying and this isn't any of our business? You didn't even ask what kind of evil it was?"

"Eddie…I know you're new to Sibuna but we've been solving Ancient Egyptian secrets and going on quests to stop evil for nearly two years. I know I'm the chosen one, the only difference is now I know I'm THE original."

Eddie's grin threatened to split his face in half.

Leaning forwards Eddie gently pulled Nina's face to his and pressed his lips against hers.

She kissed back and then pushed him away, "I'm not fully Amneris yet. Please….just give me some time with Fabian before I lose the love I have for him forever."

Eddie's heart nearly broke but he understood, "Alright. I'll be waiting."

Smiling Nina hugged her Osirian, "Now, tell me all about this evil we need to stop."

"Well, it all starts with this goddess known as Ammut…"

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REVIEW PLEASE It makes me want to write :D


	4. The First Leg of the Journey

A/N: thanks for the reviews they make me want to write more :)

Chapter 4

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"Shouldn't we tell the others where we are going?" Eddie asked Nina as she met him at the bottom of the stairs with her diary in hand.

Nina merely put a finger to her lips to silence him as she pulled her bandana over her hair to keep it out of her face.

With just a glance Nina transmitted a simple follow me with her eyes, as she entered the kitchen and crouched by the disused stove. The red light of her locket shone brightly, lighting up the room with a dim crimson sheen as the oven door opened.

Without more than a backwards glance the duo slipped in and shut the door.

"To answer your question, the reason we are not telling the others is that this is personal. As in between Paragon and Osirian, personal. If this had anything to do with our quest to stop Frobisher from being resurrected, then I would tell them in a heartbeat. I'd just prefer to learn as much about whatever this is, as I can, before we let the others in on it," Nina explained as she rifled through her diary of notes until she found the page she had written the clue on.

In the journal that had informed them of their true identities, they had found a note scribbled in cursive, that said the clue adjacent to it lead to a series of currently unknown items. All of which were noted as having importance to the progress of any Paragon or Osirian, regardless of the precluding.

The week before they had discovered the first of an unknown number of scrolls and along with their newly acquired knowledge of the past, they had been practicing nonstop to hopefully become fluent in the art of thought exchange.

So far the most they had managed were simple things, such as: Come with me, Hurry up, Stop, Don't move, I need to talk to you and several more basic thoughts.

"Makes sense I suppose. By the way, have you finished translating the clue?" Eddie asked as they straightened from a crawl and readied for the blinding ray of light.

As it slowly scanned from the ceiling down, Nina snapped her fingers and as practiced Eddie shut his eyes. With practice from the frequent use during the last week, she opened her diary. Closing her own eyes, she lifted the book, which incidentally had a medium sized mirror glued onto the inside of the back cover just for this purpose.

When the light hit the mirror, it reflected back and the blinding light sizzled and turned off.

"So have you?"

"I believe I've figured it out," Nina replied as they walked side by side. Their shoulders lightly brushed in the narrow tunnel corridor.

Guilt and pleasure swirled within her as she thought of Fabian who was sleeping twenty feet above them, oblivious to the fact that his girlfriend was sneaking around in the middle of the night with his best friend.

"Well don't leave me in suspense," Eddie chuckled as they came to a stop at what seemed to a dead end.

The wall of the dead end was covered with what seemed to be a well preserved yet slightly aged slab of stone that must have been part of an ancient temple at one time or another.

"Originally it was just pictures, as you know" Nina began, "But with some books from Robert's study and some of Amneris' knowledge, I was able to translate it and in English it says, 'Where water springs from stone, truth will be known. Tears from a crocodile fill the Nile and break Denial. Find the pieces of your mind, the solutions are in the gems. Two of red, one of blue, three of yellow, and the purple to undo."

"Cryptic, but intelligible," Eddie answered, "I take it that the part about the crocodile tears is why we are at this particular junction?"

A crying crocodile was the center piece of the depiction of a portion of the Nile. Above it were seven indentations, all arrayed in an intricate circle, that looked to have been settings for items that were now long gone.

"And you'd be correct," she quipped with a small smile in the dim light of their phones. Raising her hand towards the crocodile she gently placed the locket within the matching shape of the empty eye socket.

Grinding filled the corridor as the previously dead torches flamed to life, brightening the hall. At the base of the wall a tile in the stone floor slid from sight and admitted a pedestal from the floor.

Once it came to a stop, Nina immediately crouched down as if she had been expecting something similar to happen.

"Another clue?" Eddie asked as he crouched next to her, while she patiently began using a pencil to copy the engraved markings on the pedestal into her diary

"Yep, and this one is easy enough to translate," Nina announced, "If we hurry we can find the first gem and still get in a few hours of sleep before everyone wakes up."

Eddie looked into her eyes, 'What are we waiting for?' he exchanged with his eyes as he smiled.

'Nothing,' she returned before turning and racing down the hall.

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He didn't need thought transmission to decipher the expression on her face. She was frustrated.

Following the clue, had lead them to a wall with the mark of Anubis', the crook and flail, embossed on it. Upon touching the symbol, the wall slid sideways and opened to show them an underground cavern with an enormous and seemingly deep lake. However there wasn't anything else in the room that they could see and the clue didn't really say what it was they were looking for.

"Help me go over the clue again," he asked, "The X of Anubis marks a door to a place, where not all who drown stay dead, the gem of Shen lays at the place where life and death cross," Eddie read aloud from the diary as he paced the shore of the lake.

"The X was the Crook and Flail, when they cross they make the letter X, the bit about drowning would explain the lake but I can't figure out the part about where not all who drown stay dead. I do know that Shen means Eternity or Infinity to the Ancients so the gem here would be the Gem of Immortality. Which if Amneris' memories are correct, is one of the Seven Stones of Rebirth. All seven of which are needed to complete the transition of higher beings from one mortal life to another over a period of time."

Eddie stared at her with a raised eyebrow as he bent over and picked a number of flat stones of the floor of the cave.

"What? I have memories of an entire childhood filled with learning mythology and then over a year's worth of study as a priestess in my head. You really think I wouldn't know anything?" Nina replied amused.

"Point taken," he laughed, "Now, my all-knowing priestess, what information do you have on retrieving a gem from a lake?"

Her face scrunched slightly as she conveyed bad news, "Well…according to legend the 'gems' are actually seven sacred artifacts, made of precious stones, that when put together during a special ritual, will put the users fully into their reborn bodies. Essentially, the ritual is the final portion of a ritual done by a past counterpart. Unfortunately, that means that the blue center piece, a turquoise ankh entwined with a _Was_* is the first piece of the puzzle."

"How is that unfortunate?" Eddie asked as he began skipping his handful of stones on the black surface of the lake.

"Well…."

"Well what?" he asked letting a hint of impatience through.

"Well, according to legend the Ankh was hidden at the bottom of an underground lake that covered an entrance to the underworld. Our problem is that the entrance and the Ankh are guarded by ferocious servants of Sobek, the god of water, virility and crocodiles."

"That would be a problem wouldn't it?" Eddie responded with wide eyes.

"Eddie?" Nina asked as she took in his horrified face. Her partner wasn't moving an inch as he transmitted an order for her to do the same with his eyes.

Disregarding his request she spun around and found herself face to face with an eight foot tall behemoth of a man with a crocodile head.

"Be ye a seeker of the Ankh?" it asked in a low growl that echoed.

"Yes," Nina squeaked at first before clearing her throat, "Yes, brave guardian, I am the Priestess Amneris and I am in need of the Sacred Ankh of Shen."

"Very well, and the boy?"

"BOY?" Eddie snapped indignantly.

"Shush, Khai," Nina snapped quickly, "He is my Osirian," she answered for him.

"So be it. Boy! As the Paragon's Osirian you are bid to protect her and fight me for her right to the Ankh. Only through my utter and final defeat will you be allowed to retrieve the Ankh," the guardian explained, "NOW FIGHT!"

Spears appeared in the new opponents hands as the crocodilian's visage transformed into a snarl.

Instinct took over Khai as he launched himself at the charging creature and faked a left evasion as he spun to the right and slashed the enormous beast on the forearm.

"Good tactic, young one," the beast informed, "but sloppy form. That move should have left me decapitated."

The beast's hand flew out and attached itself to his throat. Before he could react the creature's mouth opened to become a gaping maw that suddenly released a vile looking green mist, "Try again another night, little godlings."

Eddie's vision began fading along with his consciousness. His line of sight blackened as the crocodile headed man dropped him and flashed to Nina who also collapsed from the dense green fog.

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Amneris was in trouble.

No, trouble did not truly belie the actual nature of her predicament.

"Why is it you will not perform the ritual?" high priestess Amunitep asked confused, "Without the ritual of the Inundation the Nile will not over flow with Hep's blessings and our people will have no sustenance but rice from the famine stores."

"I understand this, but why is it that I have to do it? Can't one of the other priestesses do it? I am a mere initiate of one year. I am unskilled and untried in this ritual. I could accidentally start a plague, instead of giving us good crops."

Her mentor, "It must be you because the ritual calls for a virgin of measurable power. Any other priestess of equal or greater power is either away attending blessings or no longer a virgin from participation in rituals calling for the sacrifice of a maidenhead."

Under normal circumstances she would have gone through with the ceremony and merely taken the brunt of the magical backlash that came from a non-virgin performing the ritual. However, the sickness the backlash brought would kill anything not of her power level and she could not risk the child she carried within her.

"Mistress…I-I'm n-not a..," tears rolled down her cheeks as her mentor's eyes widened in understanding.

"WHO?! Tell me who dares to defile a priestess of Anubis!"

"I cannot tell his name," Neri lied trying to cover her tracks. She had hoped her Mentor would understand but she had not and now all she could do was protect Khai and their unborn child. Which was a daughter if the divining was to be believed. Although the spell had reacted oddly, but that was probably because she wasn't purely human.

The high priestesses eyes flashed with anger, "Who! If you tell me now the punishment will be less severe and I may even refrain from informing the Pharaoh!"

An idea flashed within her mind. An exquisite lie that would save her child and herself. She needed to act quickly. It was odd though, the thought did not feel to be her own.

"I am not afraid of telling the Pharaoh," Neri became rapidly formulating her lie, "In fact it is necessary that I inform him."

The high priestess stared in shock.

"The pharaoh is your lover?"

Amneris nearly vomited in her mouth at the idea.

"No, a son of Anubis came upon order of the gods and told me I was to birth an heir to the throne, regardless of my vow of virginity," she lied, her life and love for Khai may be coming to an end but if she could protect the precious life within her body then that was enough for her, "He said that the Pharaoh's seed was failing within a human woman and that our kingdom needed new blood. He said it was my duty to reinvigorate the royal blood with the blood of the gods. So the son of Anubis brought me to his bed and took me. He said that as I am a daughter of Isis, the next ruler would be a daughter of Isis as well. And that all Queen's and King forthwith will be children of Isis. The reason I did not tell you was that I was forbidden from doing so until the conception had fully taken place. I tell you now because I am with child. A child that will one day be the Ruler of Egypt."

Amunitep stared in wide-eyed awe, "COME! We must spread the joyous news. The King shall have an Heir at last!"

Amneris was pulled to her feet and dragged by her arm from the room as the high priestess shouted the news in celebration. The new Ruler was to be born and it was to be a 'blessed'. Good news indeed for the kingdom.

Inside Amneris silently wept as she knew this was the end to her time with Khai.

At least her daughter would live a happy, protected life as a beloved princess to her people.

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Beeeep, beep, beeeep, beeeep, beeeep.

Groggily opening his eyes Eddie was happy to notice that he was still alive and even happier to see that Nina was stretched out perfectly unharmed as she snuggled into his chest.

"Ugh," Nina announced as she stirred from her sleep and looked up at Eddie, entirely blasé about the sleeping arrangement, "What is that evil noise," she asked as she buried her face into the crook of his neck.

"Uhh, I think it's my phone alarm," he replied as he used the arm not happily wrapped around Nina to fish his phone from his pocket.

He blinked exhaustedly as the phone's screen blasted light into his tired eyes.

8:10 THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GET UP LAZY!

"CRAP! Nina wake up! We have twenty minutes to get dressed and get to school and from the sound of it there are people in the kitchen! How do we get out?" Eddie asked as he sat up

When Nina didn't reply immediately he looked down at her sitting in his lap wide-eyed. She just sat there staring at the wall as she rubbed her stomach.

"I was pregnant and we were going to be separated," Nina said a tear rolling from her eye as she remembered the dream now that she was fully awake.

"Pregnant? By who? Please don't say the Pharaoh got you?" Eddie implored as he hugged her shaking body gently to his chest. His dreams were separate from her in all instances except those times they had spent together.

"You're the father…but to protect our daughter I had to say the king was her sire. It was the only thing I could do to explain why she would be blonde and light eyed, when that only happens if both the parents are blessed or if one of the parents is a god," Nina sobbed, "Khai, I love you. I don't want to be without you, but now I'll never see you again."

"Don't worry, love, it's over now. We're together here and we'll have plenty of babies don't you worry," Eddie soothed, "Wait did you said Khai?!"

Nina looked up in surprise at the realization.

"I guess I did," she smiled widely, "I also said I loved you."

"Can I call you Amneris yet?"

"Only when we're alone. The others don't know we're any different and I want you to myself for a while. I had to share you for too long," Nina requested as she straddled her lover and quickly began unbuttoning the top of his pants, "Let's skip celebrate a little before we have to go back to real life," she suggested as she pulled him into a kiss.

"Don't need to tell me twice," he replied as he leaned forward and pushed her to the floor with a grin.

They didn't make it back to the school until third period with the flimsy excuse to the teachers of having eaten something off at dinner the night before and for Sibuna, the excuse of Nina and him having a particularly bad shared vision that lasted for hours.

It was really only half a lie. They did share something it just wasn't a vision and it wasn't bad.

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A/N: Hope you liked it. If you want more please review.


	5. Trial of Will

A/N: Any ideas are welcome in reviews they help me write.

Chapter 5

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For the past four nights the secret couple returned to the cavern with the Sobekian guard. Each night Eddie lasted longer than before but was eventually knocked out.

Tonight was different.

Tonight Eddie was alone.

Tonight Eddie was angry.

Angry that Nina still refused to leave Fabian, let alone even tell him or their friends about their relationship.

He understood that while she had most of her past memories and feelings, that Amneris and Nina had not yet fully integrated. Meaning that her mind loved Fabian and that her heart and soul belonged to Eddie.

Yes he understood, and he even realized that it must be confusing for her, but that didn't mean that it didn't upset him.

Could you really blame him?

The other half of his soul was pretending that their love making had never happened. That it didn't mean anything.

She cited that it must have been the strong emotions that came from the memories of the past, that had messed with her mind.

So instead of having Nina in his arms as they announced their relationship to their friends, Eddie found his lover kissing his best friend.

Eddie stopped his walk to the cavern at the thought of Fabian's lips on Neri's. The image of the two leaning against a wall, sensually kissing felt like someone had just stabbed a burning poker into his eyes, twisted it and then jammed it down his throat into his heart.

Pain welled in him chest until all he could do to release it was lash out at the nearest wall. His fist sunk into the solid stone as if it was chalk. The rubble showered him with a coat of dust and debris.

Blinking, Eddie removed the dust from his eyes and surveyed the six inch deep crater in the wall.

He gave a sigh as he realized that he was wasting time and needed to get to the cavern. Dusting himself off, he restarted his trek towards the Sobekian and his nightly fight.

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"The clue points to the fact that the key in the riddle, is the same one we found in the tunnels," Fabian explained, "I say we go right now and get it. Who is with me?"

Everyone raised their hand but Nina.

"It's a bit late, maybe we should leave it for tomorrow night," Nina said, hoping they'd agree and not find Eddie in the tunnels.

"What? Why? It's only eleven? We've pulled all-nighter missions before, this is nothing! We just go down and get the key, simple as that."

The rest of them nodded their agreement, "We have a job to do Nina, and we can't just laze about. This is prime key finding time," Amber continued.

Nina sighed as she realized she wasn't going to get out of it, "Fine."

"Great," Fabian smiled, "I'll go get Eddie and we'll head down."

"Wait!"

"What?" Fabian asked her, startled at her upsurge.

"Uh, Eddie said he was working on a project and not to bother him," she lied quickly. Well it wasn't really a lie; he was working on something just not anything school related.

"Oh…well, then I guess we should just head down then," he replied a little confused. Eddie took all the same classes as the rest of Anubis house and none of their teachers had assigned any projects. What could he be doing?

The group quietly snuck down the stairs from Nina and Amber's room and into the kitchen.

Trying to keep suspicion off of herself, Nina opened the door without hesitation and crawled through. Perhaps if she was careful she could steer them away from the new tunnels Eddie and her had discovered.

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"Keep your arms close to your body or you will lose your center of balance and fall," the Sobekian scolded.

Eddie panted from exhaustion as he pulled his bleeding arm in closer to his chest. Distinct claw marks ran across his forearm and chest.

His original spear had been switched for a Bast short sword for his left hand and an Egyptian sickle sword for his right.

"You fight hard, but not hard enough to get your lover back," the Sobekian taunted as he nicked Eddie's leg with his own sword.

"What? How is fighting you, going to get Nina back? She isn't even gone," Eddie asked.

"Not Nina, your priestess lover, Amneris," the Sobekian answered as he parried Eddie's strike, "I assumed her memories were the reason you were trying to retrieve the Ankh."

"I'm lost. I thought this whole quest was to find seven objects that would help us be a better Osirian or Paragon," Eddie replied confused. He brought his left arm up to block the downward strike of his opponent.

"Good form," the Sobekian noted before continuing, "It is, the seven objects when activated in a ritual will open the minds of an Osirian or a Paragon to the Originals. Amneris and Khai have guided many chosen ones to enlightenment and helped them in crises, after they go through this ritual. However for you and Nina as true reincarnations, the ritual will allow the memories and souls to fully integrate, as is meant to happen. For a true chosen one, the ritual will also grant you access to the realm of the gods."

Eddie blinked in surprise. All he had to do to get Nina back in his arms and his arms only, was to complete the quest and collect the 'gems'.

Not only that but he would be able to visit the gods whenever he wanted. His mother, Ma'at, he missed especially and the calming advice his father used to give him all those millennia ago would no longer be absent from his life.

He let go. Khai allowed his innate magic to flood his body, as his hand shot out and he dug his fingers into the flesh of the Sobekian's muscled torso.

He'd do anything to have his family and his lover back. Now was the time to prove it.

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The Key had been ridiculously easy to find. In fact it was almost as if the tunnels wanted them to find it.

Now all they had to do was figure out a way to reach it.

It was dangling from a silver chain twenty feet above their heads in a portion of the tunnels they had only recently discovered.

Apparently as each clue was solved, more and more tunnels magically appeared as they finished each obstacle. For this reason, Nina had been discreetly exploring the tunnels for the last few nights as Eddie fought the Sobekian and had been drawing detailed maps of all the different levels and wings of the underground complex.

Several pages in her notes journal had been dedicated to the numerous tunnels. All of which were intricately labeled with a legend, that explained what had happened where and what clues had led to what places. She even included the Shen Cavern on the 'East Wing' page of her journal.

The East Wing was the portion of the tunnels that the rest of Sibuna was unaware of. It even included the crocodile wall, which was labeled 'The Gate' in Frobisher's notes.

"Any idea on how to get it down?" Alfie asked after he tried climbing the smooth walls in vain.

"What if we all stand on each other's shoulders until we're tall enough to get it," Amber offered.

"That might actually work," Fabian agreed, "Let's try it."

And so the four teenagers tried and failed to reach the key with this method. Apparently none of them had the prerequisite circus training necessary for four people to balance on each other's shoulders.

"Well that failed miserably. Any more bright idea's" Fabian asked, while he rubbed the sore spot he had gotten from landing on his back, "And please nothing involving impossible acrobatics."

Amber blushed, "Maybe we should come back tomorr-"

"What's this?" Alfie's voice cut Amber off as he picked up a small book that had fallen out of Nina's pocket when they had fallen.

Nina's eyes widened, "That's mine!"

"No, duh it came out of your pocket," Alfie quipped, "I meant, why is it filled with hieroglyphs and weird drawings?"

"Let me see that," Fabian said as he took the book out of Alfie's hands.

Nina slowly edged towards the entrance to the Key room, ready to make a break from the awkward questions.

"Nina?" Fabian asked looking between her and the small book confused, "When did you learn how to write in hieroglyphs? And when did you have time to make these maps or find these new tunnels?"

Air filled Nina's lungs as she let go of the breath she had been holding. All the personal things she had written about Khai and their past memories were in hieroglyphs. Something she had learned from Amneris.

Unfortunately, the maps and the clues, about what the Frobisher journal had called the Ritual of the Ouroboros, were fully detailed in English.

"Nina? What is this?" Amber asked confused.

"Nothing," Nina lied as guilt washed over her, "It's just some notes on the tunnels."

"'Where water springs from stone, truth will be known. Tears from a crocodile fill the Nile and break Denial. Find the pieces of your mind; the solutions are in the gems. Two of red, one of blue, three of yellow, and the purple to undo,'" Fabian read aloud, "It looks like these little notes on the side were used to help you translate the hieroglyphs you drew on this page."

Fabian flipped a few more pages and continued reading verbatim, "'The X of Anubis marks a door to a place, where not all who drown stay dead, the gem of Shen lays at the place where life and death cross. We found the X of Anubis in the East Wing; it's a door with Anubis' crook and flail, which hides a room in which a Servant of the God Sobek guards the Ankh of Shen. It seems that the Ankh and six other artifacts called gems are needed for some sort of ritual that will help Eddie and I become better Chosen Ones. Maybe it'll make the visions go away'."

Amber and Alfie were silently reading over his shoulder as he turned to the map of the East Wing.

"This tunnel leads straight off the main tunnel. How is it that we've never found it before?"

The trio looked at Nina for an answer.

"It's behind a door that is opened by the locket," Nina whispered. Her friends were probably furious that she had kept this from them.

"Nina? Why didn't you tell us?" Amber asked, with a hurt look in her eyes.

"I-I wasn't sure if it would pan out," Nina half lied. She really just didn't want to tell Fabian that she had slept with his best friend with whom she had a cosmic soul connection to, "Eddie and I were going to tell you soon. We just didn't want to get anyone's hopes up."

They still had confusion in their eyes.

"It said 'Maybe it'll make the visions go away," Fabian pointed out, concern and confusion mixing in his eyes, "What does that mean?"

Nina hesitated as she looked into his hurt eyes and felt her heart break as a small piece of the truth came out, "Eddie and I have been having these visions at night. They're of Egypt over three thousand years ago. Lately they've been getting progressively more like nightmares and we were looking for a way to stop or at least control them….We didn't tell you because we thought you'd lose faith in us as leaders of Sibuna."

She would have continued if it weren't for the resounding growl and crash that echoed the hall. Her cracked heart jumped into her throat as she realized the sound was coming from the East Wing.

'KHAI!' she screamed terrified. Before she could say another word her legs reacted. She barely took the time to register the sounds of footfalls following her as she shot off into the tunnel towards the sounds of fighting.

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Blood dripped down Khai's forearm as the beast struggled against the fingers implanted in his chest.

Khai dug his fingers further into the Sobekian's torso but fount resistance in his sternum. All his progress brought him, was a spurt of blood that splattered his bare chest.

Having removed his shirt before the battle to keep from ruining yet another, Khai stood in all his muscled glory, wearing nothing but a pair of ankle length red pajama pants.

Unfortunately for Khai the spurt of blood was enough of a split second distraction that the crocodile headed man was able to lunge forward unimpeded and clamp down on the smaller man's shoulder.

"AAAAAH! DAMNIT!" Khai screamed in pain as nearly every tooth in the beast's mouth pierced his flesh.

His grip slipped and the Sobekian flung him away….right into the pitch black water.

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Panic filled her chest as Neri's mind involuntarily espoused the thought of a dead Khai over and over again in her mind.

"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead," she chanted.

"Nina wait for us!" Amber shouted, "These slippers are Prada, they aren't meant for running!"

The ridiculousness of that statement, in such a situation, jerked Nina to the forefront.

"Take them off Amber. This is time for running."

"You didn't even tell us what we're running for!" Alfie protested, very much confused with the situation.

Nina nearly twitched at having to slow down for Amber and for the door to the East Wing to open.

"That sound we heard. That was Eddie and he might be in trouble, now hurry up and RUN!" Nina ordered as she reclaimed her earlier pace.

Fabian, realizing his best friend was in danger, sped ahead of Nina with the sleeve of Alfie's shirt in hand. He figured that the two boys would be of more help to Eddie than Amber or Nina if he was being attacked like the sounds construed.

Alfie got the message and full out pelted ahead of all of them, as he was the most athletic. Turning the corner of the tunnel he left the others behind and followed the increasingly loud sounds of fighting.

Right as he neared what appeared to be an opening in the wall, he heard two large splashes and the sounds of fighting ceased.

'Oh god, oh god, don't be dead buddy.'

Standing in the door way Alfie was surprised to see nothing but a smooth as glass black lake where the noises had been coming from.

The rest of Sibuna pelted into the cavern soon after and stood open mouthed.

"Where is Eddie?" Fabian asked as his eyes scanned the cavern. In a quick moment of thinking he pulled a miniature flash light from his pajama pocket and switched it on.

With the beam of light, Fabian traced the room, searching for any sign of his missing best friend.

On the floor of the cavern he found several puddles of thick dark liquid.

Amber being curious knelt down next to the puddle nearest her and tentatively dipped a finger into the liquid.

"What is it?"

Despite acting being slightly airheaded when it came to certain things, Amber wasn't stupid. Setting her phone on flashlight mode, she carefully smeared a small amount of the liquid across the screen so that the light would shine through it and show her what color it was.

Red.

"Oh god," Amber explained quickly wiping the blood of her phone with her clean hand. Looking around, her eyes locked onto the lake, which she promptly raced towards to wash the liquid from her hands.

"Amber? What is it?" Fabian asked concerned, "Did it burn you?"

"N-no it, it was-"

"Blood," Nina stated. The trio turned to find her squatting near one of the puddles with her fingers dripping with the liquid.

Standing up, Nina walked over to a flat object that was dimly glinting in the light from the flashlight.

"Whose blood is it?" Alfie asked horrified. What if Eddie was dead?

Once picked up, the object was revealed to be a sickle sword and it was dripping with blood.

Silently, Nina traversed the room until she had inspected every puddle and splatter of blood. There was a lot of it.

Nearly ten minutes passed in silence, without a word from Nina or a sign from the missing Eddie.

"Most of the blood isn't Eddie's," Nina suddenly announced.

"H-how do you know that?" Fabian asked confused.

"The sickle sword….It belongs to Eddie. The blood on it belongs to his opponent and most of the puddles and platters except those two little ones are the same color," Nina explained, "His opponent isn't human and the blood is purple not red like Eddie's."

"What opponent-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH," Amber's petrified scream split the air, cutting Fabian off.

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It wasn't water. He didn't know _what _it was, but it wasn't water.

It was as if the liquid was made of gel. Images filled his head, as pleas for help filled his ear.

"Help me"

"Free me, please"

"I can't breathe! Please HELP ME"

The implorations continued as he sank farther and farther into the liquid.

"Momma help, I can't swim momma."

"Anybody please, I need air!"

A chilling realization came over him as the voices of men, women and children bombarded his ears.

"HELP, SOMEBODY!"

"The boats sinking, somebody get this rope off!"

"I don't want to die! PLEASE HELP ME!"

The voices…were souls.

The images were their faces as they swirled about him in the liquid. Their faces were twisting and stretching as they churned against each other in the slow current.

"Osirian, save us."

"PLEASE HELP ME!"

They were souls that had drowned. The images of their deaths inundated his mind as his body settled against the floor of the soul lake.

Turning his head, Khai noticed a disturbance in the souls as they were pushed aside to allow a figure with glowing yellow eyes near him.

Khai knew that face. His thoughts were incoherent as the voices filled them but he couldn't help but think that he knew this face.

Sharp teeth slit green jaws as the figure smiled in a rather horrific fashion at him. The liquid seemed to do nothing to wash the blood from its teeth.

Where was he? Who were these people? What was that thing staring at him?

Opening his mouth, Khai tried to say something but the liquid filled his mouth and throat. His lungs burned from the lack of oxygen.

How long had he been down here?

It felt like forever.

He tried to cough the liquid out but opening his mouth just allowed more of the liquid to fill his lungs.

He couldn't breathe.

Where was he?

Who was he?

His vision was fading.

The sound of screaming souls was dimming.

"By putting your own life in danger to continue this quest, you have shown great bravery. You have passed this trial Osirian. Do as you know you must," the crocodile said. The liquid didn't seem to affect the crocodile's speech or breathing. For that matter, Khai no longer felt the thick black gel around him either. The souls seemed to be slowly swirling down a light as if it were a drain.

Understanding of where and who he was flooded his mind as a blue glow in the shape of an Ankh began glowing strongly from within the Sobekian's chest.

"Do as you know you must," the Sobekian repeated.

The liquid became black water as the souls and their voices suddenly disappeared.

Holding his mouth tightly shut, Khai popped his ears against what felt like twenty feet of water pressure.

"Do as you know you must," the Sobekian repeated once more.

Khai nodded in reply.

He had created something of an amiable relationship with the beast in the last few days.

Now that he thought about it, the creature did not truly ever attempt to kill him. In fact, it seemed as if he was trying to teach the young Osirian how to fight more than anything.

What he was about to do made his heart ache.

'Forgive me?' he asked the crocodile. Hoping beyond hope the guardian could use thought exchange as he was a creation of the gods himself.

The beast nodded his understanding.

Allowing a bubble of air to escape him Khai thrust his hand forward. This time his fingers met no resistance as they passed through the sternum and wrapped around the faience within.

Without loosening his grip, Eddie kept hold of the Ankh within the dying beast's body as he kicked off the bottom of the lake towards the surface. His lungs were in desperate need of air.

Pushing the Sobekian until his enormous body was above him, Eddie used his momentum to push the creature towards the surface near the bank.

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"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Amber screamed as she fell backwards away from the water. Oddly enough her fingers were still coated with blood, as if the water hadn't been able to clean them.

"What's wrong?" Alfie asked startled by her sudden outburst.

Instead of answering, the blonde girl merely pointed shakily at something in the water.

About ten feet out in the water, the group was met with the sight of an enormous crocodile floating in the water. Its yellow eyes were staring blankly at them.

Suddenly it began moving closer to the bank, causing the Sibuna members to scramble backwards.

As the creature reached the bank, a bloodied human arm jerkily pushed the unmoving anthropomorphic reptile onto the shore.

A second later, Eddie's familiar visage popped out of the water….completely dry.

Weirdly, neither the dead creature nor their friend seemed to have a drop of water on them.

"Eddie?"

Glowing blue eyes stared at the ceiling as the bloody figure rolled out of the black lake and laid panting on the stone floor.

"Hey guys," was all he could say.

His eyes met Nina's and a choppy version of events filled his mind with pictures of what had happened.

"Told you they'd find out," Eddie chuckled aloud as he finished panting and rolled onto his knees.

Before any of them could react, black slimy liquid pour from his mouth.

Coughing and spluttering the soul liquid was expunged from his body. Once his lungs were clear, he stood up, not saying a word as he walked over to Nina and held his hand out for his sword.

"What happened?" Nina asked, concern creasing her brow.

"I won. He said I had to utterly destroy him, so I stuck my fist in his chest," Eddie answered bitterly as he took his sword from her proffered hand and turned back towards the bank, "Not that you likely care! You were off playing Indiana Jones Jr. with Fabian while I was fighting for my life. Are you happy with yourself?!"

He knew he was being unfair, but he had just killed his friend and was covered in blood and still bleeding gashes.

Tears brimmed in her eyes as she realized that her actions had been hurting Eddie both physically and emotionally.

Walking with purpose, Eddie strode to the carcass which was lying in a puddle of expanding blood. Kneeling down he seemed to pause in whatever it was he intended to do.

"Dua Netjer en ek. Em heset net Ra. Senebti senet," Eddie invoked aloud. (Thank you. Be in favor with Ra. Farewell brother)

This being had spent his entire life protecting an object and teaching Osirian's how to fight and be brave. He didn't deserve this end.

With the tip of his sword Eddie sliced into his friends body, opening it up enough to remove a large three foot long Ankh.

The blue stone cross was glowing slightly as he lifted it from the mutilated rib cage. As soon as the artifact left his body the wounds of the beast began healing as his body morphed into that of a normal crocodile.

With a splash the great predator shot into the water of the lake, fully reanimated.

"It was good seeing you, Old friend," a deep growl echoed.

The inky blackness in the lake seemed to follow a large scaly figure as it swam to the bottom of the clearing lake and into a shimming light. Within seconds the light flashed off and the water was once again smooth as glass.

Memories of fighting and learning from the Sobekian over countless lives and partial incarnations flashed through Khai's mind.

He knew he would one day see his friend again.

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It was nearly three when the Sibuna gang finally returned to the house. They had hidden the heavy stone Ankh in a shallow area of the lake and covered it with the black sand that made up the lake bottom.

Afterwards, the others had returned to bed shaken from the experience, leaving Nina and Eddie in the kitchen to clean the bloody boy up.

Serious injuries were not really something that occurred often, beyond Alfie getting poisoned. Even then they had at least been able to go to a hospital to make him better. Unfortunately for Eddie, there was absolutely no way they could explain two enormous claw marks and an enormous crocodile bite in the middle of England.

On the other hand they were very lucky that Eddie, as a nearly complete incarnation of a godling, was made of much stronger stuff than the average human and was taking the moderate blood loss very well.

"Next time we're allowed into town, I'm stocking up on first aid supplies," Nina whispered quietly in the dark of the kitchen, trying to start a conversation after the accusations Eddie had made in the cavern.

"Probably a good idea," he replied lamely, "I-I'm sorry about what I said. You have every right to be with Fabian and do what you want. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

Nina finished wrapping his forearm with a roll of gauze from the first-aid kit Trudy kept in the cabinet. His wounds were still bleeding slightly.

"Why do you love him?" Eddie asked sadly.

"Fabian?" Nina asked to which Eddie nodded, "I don't know. He was there for me when my gram was sick, he saved my life and he helped me through the last two years. He's a good person, he's smart, warm and funny. I guess that's why I love him."

"Do you love me?" Eddie asked knowing that her response now wouldn't be marred by emotions from her past memories.

"I-I do. But it's different. I don't remember falling in love with you or why I do. All I know is that when I'm with you it feels right. I also know that we are going to end up together no matter what I want because we are literally two parts of the same whole," Nina explained as she wrapped his upper torso with the gauze, "I enjoy being with Fabian because it's my choice. Call me stubborn but I don't particularly like the fact that our divine parents are calling the shots on things so basic as who I have to love."

Silence fell between them as Nina finished with the bandage and secured it with a safety pin. He pulled his long sleeved pajamas top on as she put the first aid kit away.

"You also have to remember that at night I'm stuck in another life, where I am pregnant with the next ruler of the nation. It's nice to wake up to sweet, normal Fabian and just for a moment forget that I'm never going to see the father of my child again and that in six nights I will be vividly experiencing childbirth," she whispered. Tears ran down her face as her whole body shuddered with repressed sobs.

Eddie wrapped his arms around her as she silently cried her frustrations into his shoulder. She was right, here he was being jealous when she was about to go through a traumatic experience and upon waking up realize that child, that she just given birth to, has been dead for nearly three thousand years.

It broke his heart. His daughter was dead. He couldn't even remember far enough in the past time line to know if he ever even got to meet her.

"Listen to me Nina," Eddie started as he ignored the pain of holding her against his wounds, "You do whatever it is you that you need to do to make yourself happy. I want you to ignore me when I get jealous or when I shout. I may get angry that the woman I love and the mother of my child is with another man but that is nothing compared to what you have to go through. Do what you need to do, to survive this and I'll be waiting for you. Even if it takes years or it isn't until our next reincarnation."

Nina stared wide-eyed at him, "I think I remembered why I loved you."

Before he could speak she placed a chaste kiss on his lips, "Thank you Khai. It won't be years before I'm in your arms again."

With that she left the kitchen. Eddie slid down again the refrigerator and cradled his head in his hands as he let out the emotions he had been bottling up.

Why was it, that the gods could not have given them peace? Why was he not in the afterlife with his soul mate and children and their children's children, as all good men did when they died? Why were they instead subjected to an eternity of fighting evil and falling in love only to have it ripped away too soon by the limits of mortality?

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Jerome pretended to still be asleep when Alfie came back into the room a little after three in the morning. He looked shaken and pale as he climbed into bed.

"Where have you been," he asked suddenly, feigning as if he had only just woken up.

"Huh?" Alfie asked despondently, "Oh I was..uh using the bathroom."

"Oh…alright," Jerome answered.

He knew that was a lie.

Jerome had woken up around midnight and noticed that Alfie's bed hadn't even been slept in. He had gotten up and searched the entire house including the kitchen and girls' room and had seen neither hide nor hair of his best friend.

Even odder, when he had lightly knocked on and then opened the door to Amber and Nina's room to see if they were having one of their little club meetings, he found that Amber and Nina were also gone.

He'd then checked the other rooms and found that while Joy, Mara and Patricia were sound asleep, Fabian and Eddie were gone as well.

He knew that their little club must be back at whatever it was they did.

It was odd though. He remembered something about a library and getting kidnapped and then an intricate wooden box being opened in front of him but his memories about the event seemed to blur when he thought of them.

Come to think of it…that very same box was the one that their old house mother Vera had used to get them to meditate.

Jerome stared at the ceiling and swore then and there that whatever it was his house mates were up too he was going to figure it out.

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A/N: whew that took some research O_o

Please, please, please, please review. I only got three reviews from the last chapter and my traffic review says over a hundred people read it…is it so bad that only three people liked it? PLEASE review and tell me if I'm just wasting my time or if you like this story and want me to keep going. It's really the only way I know if I'm doing it correctly!


	6. Trial of Truth

A/N: Sorry about the wait. I'm graduating at the moment. Makes life a bit busy /:

Please review : )

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Chapter 6

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"There is always a place for you as one of my wives," Tutankhamen offered for what seemed like the millionth time. He had taken time from his duties to spend with her, knowing that she carried his heir.

At the moment they were relaxing in one of his private sitting room on a rather plush set. He sat beside her with a hand placed casually on her golden knee.

"While that is gracious my lord," Amneris conceded politely, "It is my duty to bear you this child and then return to my post as a priestess."

There was no way in the name of Ra that she was going to willingly give herself to this retched man.

"Such a waste of beauty," the pharaoh tsked. He was getting dangerously close to taking their conversation from complimentary to indecent, "You're hair looks as if it were spun from rays of the sun itself."

His other hand, which had been around her shoulder, slid along her clavicle until it rested on the back of her neck. His new grip made it hard for her to move away from his hands without blatantly being rude. Something that would not go well with the easily angered king.

"Thank you," was all she managed to whisper as the hand on her knee slid closer towards the apex of her thighs. Shudders of disgust racked her body at his touch.

Before she could even think of a protest that would placate the vile man and allow her to keep her life after the baby was born, the pharaoh buried his face in her neck and ran his tongue across her pulse.

"You're shuddering from the sheer pleasure," the king boasted like the braggart he was, "I knew I could break you out of that shell priestess."

His hand on her thigh had found its mark and was cupping her as if she were an artfully won trophy of war.

"Your Majesty!" a sentry announced suddenly, "The Sumerians have arrived!"

His majesty growled in annoyance before turning and smirking at her, "Don't worry, we'll finish what we started later."

Neri waited until he had left the room before she let the tears flow as she curled on her side and sobbed.

How had her life come to this?

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Fabian was concerned to say the least.

Last night he had witnessed several rather traumatic things. Things that would have had a lesser man bawling and he was proud to say that he had woken up without even a hint of a blubber or sob.

What concerned him was not his stern continence. Rather it was the fact, that last night, he had learned that his girlfriend and best friend had been gallivanting around on potentially lethal adventures, without even informing anyone in case of an emergency.

Fabian glanced over at Eddie who was scarfing down his food slightly slower than usual, so as to not pull his wounds from the movements. He noticed that his best friend was wearing a long sleeve grey shirt with jeans, which had the effect of hiding his numerous injuries from any inquiring minds.

Turning his attention to his right, he acknowledged Amber as she sat down a seat away from him to leave room for Nina between them.

Amber gave him a look of commiseration before she turned away to accept a short stack of pancakes from Trudy.

A moment later Nina hurried into the room and sat next to Fabian. Oddly, it was not the seat that Amber had reserved for her, but instead she was sitting in the seat next to Eddie that Mara had vacated not two minutes before.

The two started whispering unintelligibly.

Eddie's eyes widened with concern as the inscrutable conversation continued.

Standing up suddenly, Eddie swiped a bagel from the tray in front of him, "Well I'm off, always a good idea to be early. Nina? Would you like to walk with me?"

Without waiting for her answer, his best friend hurried out of the room, followed by an equally hurried Nina.

What was going on?

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Once the two were safely ensconced in the wooded area of the grounds, Eddie turned to her and gently wrapped her in a hug.

Being mindful of the wounds under his shirt, they stood holding each other as Nina sobbed out her worries, "They're memories. I know that. But it's still horrible not to be able to scream and rage or stop anything. It's like being in a horror movie and the script is written and I have no choices. I hate it. I hate being trapped. I hate the idea of him claiming our daughter as his own. I hate the taint I feel. No matter how hard I scrub, I still feel his hands on me. Touching me, grabbing me, and all the while knowing that if I were to knee him in the groin like I want to, that I'd be executed."

"I'm sorry," was all Khai could say to that, "I love you and I'm sorry. I wish I could take the pain away."

Before he could continue the bell announced that there was five minutes until the first period of the day started, breaking the two from their little world.

"Thank you," Nina sniffed one last sniffle before kissing him on the cheek.

Without another word, she turned and raced from the woods. All she could do was hope that the monotony of class would dull the pain and allow her to forget the king's roving hands.

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Eddie waited two minutes before following her, leaving the forest two trees shorter as he did. Destroying trees may not be the most environmentally friendly method of stress relief, but they certainly made for reliable punching bags.

Sighing with exasperation, he walked onto the field five minutes after the final bell. He had almost pulled the scabs from his wounds off with those punches he noted mentally.

Coming from the boys' locker room after the episode in the wood, Eddie had changed into a light-blue long-sleeve under armor with basketball shorts, to ensure that at the most, the only injury showing from last night was the small nick near his knee that could be easily explained.

"Ah, there you are Eddie. I was wondering where you had gotten off too. Well, since you decided to grace our humble presence late, I think you will make a fine volunteer to join me in the front and help lead the warm up," Ms. Winter insisted.

She had been introduced as the new fitness teacher by his father the week before. She seemed nice despite her over enthusiastic approach to exercise.

"Sure?" was all he could think of.

"Very good," she replied, "Now if you all would be so kind, as to follow my lead, then we'll do some quick exercises to really wake you children up."

He really hated having this class so early in the morning.

"Everyone stand up!" she announced to the class. Once each student was standing, she began with the first exercise.

"Jumping jacks will get the blood flowing," Winter's explained, "Come on Eddie, you can do better than that."

In an attempt not to pull his already slightly leaking wounds, any more than they already were, Eddie was halfheartedly doing his jumping jacks. He could feel the scabs pulling even when his hands didn't go above his shoulders.

Unfortunately for Eddie, Ms. Winter was not a lackadaisical instructor by any means.

Walking over to her unenthusiastic volunteer, she grabbed both his wrists and stretched them out as far as they would go.

With an air of peppiness, she began vigorously moving his arms, as if he were a puppet, so that he had to do full jumping jacks.

Eddie gritted his teeth in pain as he felt the layers of coagulated blood over his chest wounds rip open in a particularly violent way. Half the inch deep puncture wounds he had received from the Sobekian were once more fresh wounds that began pumping his already diminished blood supply from his body.

"Oh come now Mr. Miller! SMILE! Exercise isn't that bad-OH MY" the teacher gasped as she dropped his arms and stepped back in shock, inadvertently giving the now curious class a full view of Eddie.

Eddie's light blue under armor was quickly blooming with circles of bright red, as blood soaked through his bandages and his clothing. The blood that he had lost the night before had not yet restored itself, and despite his enhanced physique, the sudden loss of another pint of blood caused his eyes to roll into his head as he blacked out. Knees buckling he fell unconscious to the grass.

If he had been human, he would have been long dead from the injuries he had sustained the prior night. Luckily he was not.

"Mr. MILLER?! What on earth! We need to get to the nurse's immediately!" the now frantic teacher shouted. Her first month on the job and the Headmaster's son had just collapsed on her watch.

"YOU," she yelled at one of the larger boys from Isis house, "Carry Mr. Miller to the nurse's office, I have to get the headmaster."

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Eric Sweet was frantic with worry as he jumped into the back of the ambulance that his son had just been loaded into.

All he could do was stare at the large amount of blood that was soaking Edison's gym clothes.

"Scissors! We need to get this thing off him and assess the damage," one EMT ordered another as he was handed the object he had requested.

The EMT that had handed his colleague the scissors turned to him, "Can you tell me how this happened? Car accident? Stabbing? Anything that will help us treat him?"

"STABBING?! I should think not! All I kn-now is that he was doing j-jumping jacks and collapsed," he answered erratically.

"Bloody hell!" the EMT with the scissors exclaimed, "looks like he was chewed up by an animal!"

Sure enough as Eric looked back at his son's now exposed chest, he saw that there were dozens of deep circular puncture wounds going from his shoulder to his navel in a U shape.

"Looks the same on his back," it was announced a moment later, "It looks like the bite mark of some kind!"

The EMT continued cutting the stretchy material from the boy's torso, only to find several bandages on other portions of his body.

"Seems like he got these injuries earlier and tried to hide it by wrapping the wounds himself," the EMT with the scissors said.

"What do you teach at that school? Crocodile wrestling?!" the other remarked.

"What? Don't be absurd! I haven't the slightest as to how he received these injuries, but it most certainly was NOT because of MY school!"

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"Edison?" the social worker asked, as Eddie groggily awoke from his medically induced sleep.

Child services had been called when a student with an inexplicable injury had been checked into the hospital in need of a blood transfusion and 145 stitches.

"Or do you prefer Eddie?" she continued as he finished coming to.

"Uh, yeah, Eddie," he answered slightly confused, "uh, who are you?"

"Michelle Bridgewater, I'm with child services," she explained.

"Ok, why are you here?" he asked even more confused. Hadn't he just been in gym class?

"You were brought in with some odd injuries that no one has been able to sufficiently explain," she replied, "I was told that based on your injuries, that you're extremely luckily to even be alive. Also it looks as if you had been mauled by a large specimen of the crocodilian family, but apparenlty no one knows how or when it happened."

"Crocodile? Hehe," Eddie lied, his voice weak, "This is England there aren't any crocodiles here."

"Yes and the odder part is that you also have what look to be several slice wounds, that are similar in appearance and placement to wounds more commonly found in fencing matches where actual swords are used," she espoused, "Would you be so kind as to tell me in your own words, how it was that you received those wounds?"

"I fell?" he said stupidly.

"You fell?" she restated incredulously.

"Yes, I fell," he repeated.

"Fell?" she asked again.

"Yep, fell," he returned.

"How is it that you received 80 different, inch deep puncture wounds in perfect curves that look like a crocodile bite I saw while I was on a trip in Africa, all from _**A FALL**_?"

"Just really unlucky, I guess." he replied.

"Eddie please, if someone did this to you, you don't have to protect them. We'll see that they face justice and that they won't be able to do it to you or anyone else ever again," she insisted in a gentler voice that just oozed concern, "Was it your father?"

"Whaa?" was all he managed as he realized where she was going with this train of thought, "AHAHAHAHAHAHA! You-! You think that MY dad, the guy that everyone calls Sweetie, attacked me with a sword and a crocodile? You're off your rocker!"

"Mr. Miller, PLEASE! This isn't a laughing matter?! I really need to know how you got those wounds!"

"I fell…out of a tree…and into a pit where I was mauled by a sword wielding crocodile," he ended in a fit of laughter that had him holding his chest. The thought while absurd, really wasn't far from the truth.

With a huff the social worker stood up and smoothed her skirt, "I'm glad to see you're feeling better. I will be visiting your school later on during the following months to make sure nothing such as this reoccurs. Good day Mr. Miller."

Eddie froze in mid laugh as the woman strode from the room, all the while scribbling notes onto a clipboard.

Scrutiny on the school would make it much harder to do what needed to be done.

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Michelle Bridgewater prided herself on her investigative abilities. In all her years as a social worker, she had never once not solved any case of abuse she had been given.

Her new case may have been more self-chosen, seeing as her superiors didn't think there was a connection between the two incidences, but that didn't mean it didn't need solving.

It had all started the previous year when a student by the name of Alfred Lewis, who was staying at Anubis House, had been hospitalized. Apparently he had been poisoned and according to reports had to be sedated because of convulsive anxiety attacks.

When interviewed after first waking up he had gone into one such attack and the file stated that he had been shouting "They're going to kill us! The Cloaked ones are going to kill us!" before he was once more sedated.

Unfortunately, according to the second interview statement, he had no recollection of anything that had happened after getting ready to go to bed the night before his hospitalization.

Nevertheless, she would solve the case and save the children of Anubis House, from whatever it was that was happening.

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Jerome was suspicious.

He knew that Eddie's sudden trip to the emergency room had something to do with whatever it was that group of kids had been up to last night.

And so it was that he was hiding in the sarcophagus in the foyer, knowing that Alfie had gone upstairs to join the group just ten minutes ago.

The lid to the sarcophagus was held open a half inch with a rubber eraser; so that he would have a clear line of sight to the kitchen but in the darkness, no one would notice his hiding spot.

He almost forgot to breathe when Fabian, Nina, and Patricia came into view. Alfie came down behind them, but instead of staying, simply bid them good night and headed back to his own room. Luckily he had left the shower running and locked the bathroom door from the outside, so that anyone looking for him would assume he was there.

The only questing left was 'What was Patricia doing with Victor's ladder?'

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"Eddie will be fine," Fabian reassured Nina with a hug as she sighed deeply into his shoulder, "He's the Osirian after all. Can't ask for a better advantage than that."

"Fabian, the fact that he is the Osirian is the problem. He's died before and he'll die again, I know that it'll happen. What I'm worried about is that we won't survive this life with a reasonable amount of years lived first."

"Let's not dwell on the thought," Fabian insisted as they entered the kitchen and crouched down near the stove. It made him uncomfortable to know that his girlfriend and his best friend were connected in such a way.

"Can we get a move on already, this ladder isn't exactly light," Patricia grumbled.

Once the door to the stove was opened the trio worked together to feed the ladder through the tunnel.

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That might have been one of the odder things Jerome had witnessed in his young life.

He had just witnessed three of his friends walk into the kitchen, crouch on the floor and after a burst of red light they crawled out of sight and were soon followed by a ladder that seemed to be going through the wall from his point of view.

Silently opening the sarcophagus, he jumped out and hurried into the kitchen to find it completely empty. Looking back to check his line of sight he realized that his vision had been blocked by the door frame and that he could not have seen wherever it was that the trio and the ladder had gone.

Checking his watch he decided to actually get a shower and then get some rest for the following day.

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"Got it!" Patricia announced from the top of the ladder, where she sat holding the key she had just retrieved.

"Great!" Fabian exclaimed, "Let's see it!"

Tossing him the key, Patricia climbed down from the ladder and joined the trio on the floor.

"Seeing as you are now the resident expert in hieroglyphics, why don't you take the lead," Fabian teased as he handed Nina the key, from which she immediately removed a tiny scroll. The key had had a piece of paper tightly wrapped around its shaft.

She opened her ever-present journal and began taking notes, "the markings are small, but I believe it says 'The Moon and the Sun. The key is one of two. It is a shield, a weapon and a guide to what is true.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Patricia asked impatient.

"I think this might be the next clue for the Journey," Nina said as she noticed a tiny Ouroboros drawn in the corner of the note.

Nina felt an overwhelming cold chill her to her bones as the torches on the wall blew out and her locket bathed the room in a dim red glow

On the wall opposite the entrance to the room, were two spots of glowing red lights that seemed to be emerging from the wall.

A bare outline of a shadowy figure, gave a low growl, as what were now obviously red-eyes, floated towards them in the near pitch blackness.

"Truth will free you. Lies will bind. To this question answer true. For if a lie is what I find, then not you but your friends will meet their ends."

The voice that carried this pronouncement was steadily getting closer and closer to the place Nina was sitting on the freezing stone floor. She could feel ice forming on her eyelashes as she blinked back tears of fear.

Its icy breath numbed her cheek as the cold, high voice of the creature whispered in her ear, "Unlike the Sobekian, I do not show mercy or greet you with friendship, little priestess. For my mistress is upset with you to say the least. Her son is the one that your lies are hurting most and so the Goddess of Truth demands justice be served. Ma'at bids you to answer this question. Who are you?"

'Who am I?' Nina thought, 'That wasn't a particularly hard question."

"Tick tock, little one," the thing said as it stalked around her, its claws clacking against the stone as it walked.

As Nina's eyes adjusted, she could see that the creature had the body of a lion and the head of a breathtakingly beautiful woman, whose smiling mouth was filled with glinting, razor-sharp, silver fangs.

"Better answer soon, or I will stay true to my word and it will be your friends who pay the price for your slowness," the Sphinx purred dangerously.

"My name is Nina Martin," Nina answered quickly, "I'm seventeen years old and I am-EEH!"

Silver claws flashed at her face as she fell backwards away from the Ice Sphinx. Only one of its claws managed to catch her, as it left an inch long gash above her left eyebrow.

"I told you that it would be your friends who paid the price if you lied," the Sphinx snarled, as she spun towards the ladder in the middle of the dark room. During the conversation between the Paragon and the Sphinx, the other two Sibuna members had climbed to the top of the ladder and were currently beginning to climb the chain that had been holding the key high above the floor.

Just as Fabian climbed onto the chain after Patricia, the lion-woman was nearly at the top, "Two more chances to answer with the truth or your precious friends meet a rather painful fate."

"I already told you, My name is Nina Ma-"

"AAARGH!" the Sphinx roared as Fabian kicked the ladder out from underneath himself in an attempt to keep the beast away.

Unfortunately for Fabian, the Sphinx was already too close and instead of resting on the ladder, it was now sinking its razor sharp claws into his calf to stop itself from falling.

"One more chance, little priestess" the beast growled menacingly as it began pulling itself up using the now screaming Fabian's leg skin.

'PRIESTESS! She called me Little Priestess,' Nina realized mentally, "MY NAME IS AMNERIS AND I AM THE DAUGHTER OF ANUBIS AND WIFE OF KHAI!" she shouted desperately, "I Love him more than the moon and the stars and –"

Light flooded the room as the Ice Sphinx flashed out of existence, leaving a cuff with two glowing rubies to fall with a loud clatter to the earth.

Jumping to her feet, Nina hurried to ladder and set it back up beneath her two friends.

With a now limping Fabian, the trio rejoined back on the floor. Nina wrapped her arms around her boyfriend, glad that he was alive.

He didn't return the hug.

"What did you do with Nina?" Fabian asked quietly, a hint of fear in his voice.

"What are you talking about, I am Nina," she answered confused.

"To pass the test you had to tell the truth. It said that if you were to lie that it would attack us instead of you. When you said that you were Nina Martin it attacked us, when you said your name was Amneris it disappeared and you passed the test. You ARE NOT Nina! Now tell where she is and what you did to her."

"I'm Nin-"

SMACK!

Neri didn't even have time to steel herself before Patricia's hand came from nowhere and knocked her to the floor.

"Nina is my friend. I don't know who you are but that little 'Test' just proved that you're not her."

Tears flowed free as she stared up at her two friends.

"Do you want the truth?" Neri asked.

The pair nodded.

"Then listen and don't contradict me until I've finished," she instructed.

Her two friends lowered themselves to the floor with a suspicious look.

"My name is Amneris and I was born over three thousand years ago," Neri began explaining. After nearly an hour of explanations the three had come to a tentative understanding.

"So you're Nina but you're also Amneris?" Patricia tried to clarify.

"Yes, until recently I was purely Nina, because I did not remember who I was in all my past lives," Nina explained, "At the moment I am both Nina and Amneris. Sometimes I'm fully Nina and everything about me is just Nina and other times I'm fully Amneris and sometimes I'm both."

She could see the gears in Fabian's mind at work, as Patricia just stared at her incredulously.

"You said that Khai was your soul mate….that he was also the Osirian," Fabian whispered, the pain in his voice palpable, "Is Eddie your soul mate?"

Patricia's eyes narrowed when Neri hesitated, "Is that why Eddie broke up with me? Because he wanted to be with you?"

"Well, answer the question!" Fabian demanded with tears brimming in an angry face, "Do you love Eddie?"

"Amneris loves Khai, Khai is Eddie. So yes, I love Khai," Neri answered.

"Have you slept with him?" he asked out of nowhere.

She hesitated as a wall of guilt slammed her in the chest. She nodded.

"Right, well," Fabian said, his face contorted in pain, "I guess that's that. We're through."

Fabian wiped the tears of pain from his face and stood up. The claw marks on his calf dripped blood as he limped quickly from the chamber.

"Fabian! Wait!" Nina cried out, "Fabian PLEASE!"

No answer.

"FABIAN!"

"Fabian please," she finished in a whisper her words nearly silenced by the sobs that were constricting her chest, "I love you."

It was too late, he was gone and her whisper went unheard by the man that needed to hear them.

"Nina?" Patricia asked uncertainly, "Is that you?"

Nina turned her tear stained face towards her friend, "Yes Patricia, it's me."

"How will I know, after we go back?" the red head asked, "How will I know that it's my friend I'm talking to and not some ancient priestess?"

"Patricia. I-" she restarted, "Amneris and Nina are two different parts of the same whole. When my memories finish integrating, I'll still be Nina…but I'll also be Amneris. Please understand that you're my friend no matter what. All of Sibuna is."

"I-I understand," Patricia answered, "I guess we should start heading back," she finished lamely.

"Trixie?" Nina began.

"Yeah, Neens?" Trixie replied quietly. The return to nicknames was a nominal comfort to the usually feisty girl.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Eddie," Nina started, "It was a moment of weakness when he was Khai and I was Neri. When I was myself again I tried to pretend that it didn't happen. But-"

"It's fine, Nina," Trixie stopped her, "Eddie and I were close to breaking up anyway. Something had changed between us and it just wasn't working out. The only difference now is that I know what changed."

Silence lapsed between the two as they walked through the dim corridors.

"Nina?" Patricia asked suddenly, "Who's Neri?"

"Huh?"

"Neri, you said that you were Neri?" she clarified.

"Oh," Neri understood, "Neri is the nickname Khai gave me when we were children. He decided that Amneris was much too long and declared that from that day forward that I would be Neri."

"Wait?" Trixie interrupted with wide eyes, "So you're Amneris right now?"

"Yes," Neri replied, "I often switch depending on the situation."

The two chatted amiably as they headed back to their respective beds.

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A/N: that took a while to write O_o

Please Please PLEASE review. I need to know if you like the chapter so I know if I'm taking the story in a good direction.


	7. Apologize

A/N: PLEASE review it means a lot to me and motivates me to write.

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Chapter 7

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The doctors were amazed at how quickly Eddie seemed to recover from losing nearly two thirds of the blood in his body. It was practically inhuman in fact.

But there was there was no reason to keep a patient in the hospital if he didn't need to be there.

So with orders not to do anything too vigorous until his stitches had been removed, Eddie was released from the hospital a little after dawn the next morning.

Which meant Eddie was allowed one day of bed rest before he could return to his schooling.

'If only I could have swung another day,' he sighed mentally.

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Fabian Rutter was not known to be an angry person. In fact, out of all the boys in Anubis house, he was known to be the most forgiving.

However, in the case of his girlfriend sleeping with his best friend, he was not forgiving in even the slightest of senses.

But, despite his internal seething, he knew that he had to keep up a normal appearance, and continue on with life.

So like the Englishman he had been raised to be, Fabian stood in the boys shared bathroom with a stiff upper lip as he finished wrapping the wounds he had received the night before.

First he applied Neosporin to the palm of his hands, before he gently wrapped gauze around each one. He let out a deep breath as the anti-septic came in contact with his miscellaneous injuries. Especially the chain marks frozen into his hands.

He had gotten the marks when the chamber had frozen last night, the chain that Fabian and Patricia had been hanging from had iced over and burned the pairs' hands with a rather painful line of frostbite across their palms.

Once done with his hands, he moved onto the five half inch deep puncture wounds on his calf, which while painful were thankfully nowhere near as severe as Eddie's had been.

With his injuries attended, Fabian finished dressing and headed to breakfast.

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Trixie tentatively flexed her ice burned hands to make sure the bandages that Nina had helped her with wouldn't slip. In return she had helped Nina cover the bruise on her face with concealer; perhaps she shouldn't have slapped her so hard.

Amber and the rest of the girls had already headed down to breakfast without them, citing that Nina was taking too long. Trixie, however, knew Nina was stalling in a vain attempt to postpone seeing Fabian, and made no move to hurry her as she normally would. She herself was not looking forward to the awkward tension that was sure to ensue.

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The tension in the room was palpable. And seeing as only three of the tables occupants knew why exactly it was that the room was tense, the entire situation was made all the more awkward.

"Would someone mind telling me why Fabina is sitting on polar opposite ends of the table?" Amber asked confused.

Fabian began hacking his sausage to bits with vigor, "Perhaps it's because Nina would rather be a part of Neddie instead of Fabina."

"Perhaps if you had listened to my explanation last night, instead of running away, maybe you would know that I don't have a choice in the matter!" Nina shot back, the hurt visible on her face.

"Huh?" Alfie intoned confused.

"Choice about what?" Joy asked looking between the two.

"There is always a choice '_Neri'_," he practically spat the name, "You could have told me before any of this ever happened. I would have been hurt but at least it wouldn't be the slap in the face I got last night."

"If I recall I was the only one slapped in the face last night," Nina hissed.

"Sorry about that," Patricia said again.

"It's fine, I deserved it," Nina accepted, "What I didn't deserve is to have my boyfriend walk out when I was trying to explain what happened."

"_**EX**_-boyfriend," Fabian announced causing everyone at the table to gasp as the drama unfolded.

Tears welled in Nina's eyes as she stared wide eyed at Fabian.

Eddie took that particular moment to arrive in the silent room.

"Who died?" Eddie quipped as he walked in. The arm on his left was in a sling to keep him from jarring his stitches. Completely unaware of the tension in the room he walked up behind Nina and grabbed a biscuit off the plate in front of her.

Fabian snapped, "Look who's back. You know I was rather hoping you'd died of blood loss. Guess I'm just not that lucky."

Everyone gasped at that. Weren't they supposed to be best friends?

"Fabian Rutter!" Trudy exclaimed horrified. She had just walked in with a plate of toast in her hand, "That is no way to speak to your friend! I don't know what this little squabble is about but it can't be so bad so to wish your best friend was dead!"

"_**EX**_-best friend!" Fabian snarled, "If he was my friend he would never have slept with my girlfriend.

Everyone's heads swiveled towards Nina and Eddie who were staring at their usually meek friend.

"Oh," Eddie said finally understanding, "You told him…didn't you."

Nina nodded as tears rolled down her face. She was close to full out sobbing.

"What? You think crying is going to change the fact that you're a selfish liar! That you didn't care how it made me feel, as long as you got what you wanted," Fabian said coldly.

Eddie glared at Fabian in warning. The words might have had some truth to them but he obviously didn't know how hard it was for Nina to deal with what was happening to her.

"It wasn't like that! You don't have a clue what she's going through, so don't be so quick to judge!" Patricia seethed, her voice rising.

Nina was her friend and while she was hurt by what had happened with Eddie, she knew that what the two were going through took precedent and that they weren't to blame.

"What you're turning on me too?" Fabian hissed, "We nearly got killed last night because of the little slut's games and you expect me to happy when I find out she's fucking my best friend!"

Not a sound could be heard after that, as everyone stood stock still, unsure of what to do next. No one wanted to be the one that got up to leave in case they missed anything interesting. Besides how often was it that you saw quiet, geeky Fabian curse out his friends.

"Apologize," a voice quietly demanded.

Everyone turned to look as a seething Eddie.

"What?" Fabian asked uncertain of what to do. His friend had a look that promised pain. A look that didn't belong on the face of the usually laid back Eddie Miller.

"Apologize," came a whispered order from Khai who was gritting his teeth as he glared at Fabian with a look that could have put him six feet under.

"Neither of you deserve it," Fabian returned quietly.

"Apologize or lose your tongue boy," Khai threatened with a deadly edge to his voice. He had killed men for less. Insulting his wife by calling her a slut and making her cry was not something he allowed anyone to get by with. Picking up a bread knife from the table with his free hand, his eyes never left the now wide-eyed boy who was looking at him with a look of confused fear.

"Eddie?" Alfie asked, "What are you doing?"

Khai kept his eyes on Fabian as stalked closer to the boy, "Apologize!"

Fabian was now up against the wall as Khai stood in front of him, the knife held clenched in his hand. Realization lit up his brain as he finally understood that the man in front of him was not his seventeen year old best friend, but rather the three thousand year old warrior that he had seen hacking up an enormous crocodile two night before.

"You're not Eddie," Fabian whispered so low that only the man with the knife could hear, "That's what Nina was trying to say. That it happened when she wasn't herself and you weren't Eddie."

"Took you long enough," Khai smirked dangerously, "Now apologize before I decide to castrate you for insulting my wife."

Fabian nodded minutely as he stared into the glowing blue eyes that were dimming back to their original dull green.

"Good," Eddie stated as he turned back to the wide eyed occupants of the room, "Well I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Fabian do you have something that you want to say to Nina?"

Before Fabian could utter a single word, Eddie dropped the knife onto the table and walked over to Nina and wrapped her in a quick one armed hug. As he did so he noticed the gleaming, ruby-set cuff on her wrist, "Nice bracelet, you can tell me all about it when you get back from classes later."

With a possessive kiss to her temple and a warning look at the frowning Fabian, Khai exited the dining room.

As soon as he was gone the room turned expectantly to the previously fighting couple.

"What is going on?" Mara asked.

"Nothing!" Fabian and Nina said in unison. The now split couple looked at each other as they realized how open that confrontation had been.

"S'not nothing," Mara grumbled before returning to silence.

Everyone was now looking at Fabian expectantly. With a deep breath and a sigh, the meek boy turned to face his ex-girlfriend.

"Nina, I'm sorry for what I said," Fabian apologized, "You didn't deserve that. We were friends long before we were ever together and no matter how much you hurt me, I know that things happen, and that I can't take all my anger out on you. Can you forgive me?"

Nina nodded slowly as she wiped her face of tears.

With that Fabian strode from the room without another word, the apology was the most he could deal with right now.

Nina gave a deep shuddered breath as she stood up and quickly left the room.

The dining room was silent for a moment as the drama ended and the tension left the room.

"Can someone PLEASE tell me what's going on?" Amber asked confused.

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A/N: Please Please Please review, they motivate me to write more and any feedback or ideas help me take the story in the right direction.


	8. Double Execution

A/N: Wrote the last two chapters really fast and I think I need to slow down or the quality is going to get worse that it already is :/

Please review!

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Chapter 8

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It was a crime against the gods. A crime so horrible that even the king's advisors begged him not to go through with it.

And yet the arrogant man ignored their pleas. All the pain and anguish that was about to be wrought, would be his fault and still he did not care.

He was the pharaoh after all, a mortal god that all were made to bow too. What he wanted, he received.

So how dare that spiteful bitch refuse HIM of all people! Any women should be grateful that he even acknowledged their existence.

Normally every woman, from the lowest of maids to the highest of nobility WOULD have bent over backwards to ensure his happiness.

In fact all woman did; all except the one he truly wanted.

This time however, she had gone too far in her rejection of him.

The night prior he had ordered the pale-skinned priestess to be brought to his bed chamber. He had decided that she had sufficient time to heal from the arduous birth of his daughter, the Princess Nepthi, not two months earlier. Now it was finally time to take that which belonged to him.

However even after trying his patience and having to be forcibly dragged to his quarters, the purple eyed woman still refused to do as he wished. She refused his right to bed her.

Forgiveness may not have been his strong suit, but he was still willing to give it despite her refusal to comply.

Unfortunately for her, his forgiveness ran out the moment she bit right through his lip, as he attempted to force himself upon her.

And so it was that the crime against the gods was being committed.

Today was the day, that the High Priestess Amneris of the Temple of Anubis, Blessed Daughter of Isis, was due to be executed.

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The news had spread quickly through out the land, that one of the blessed had committed a grievous crime and had tried to kill the Pharaoh himself. Upon hearing this news, the majority of people agreed that she deserved execution, that death was the only thing good enough for someone who tried to kill the great king of Egypt.

They could not have known that the young woman's only crime was trying to protect herself from the forced ministrations of a cruel man.

But Khai knew. Khai knew right away that his lover would never do any such thing without good reason. Khai knew that the girl with the sharp tongue and the steel will would never attempt to hurt anyone who did not deserve it.

This knowledge was what led Khai to race across the desert on horseback, in a desperate attempt to prevent the death of the mother of his child.

He only hoped he was fast enough. That his horse would reach the palace before his love was judged guilty and tossed to the sacred crocodiles as was the fate of all attempted assassins.

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To kill a Blessed in cold blood was an automatic blemish on the heart of the one responsible; a blemish that would burden the heart with guilt.

A heavy heart had no chance of balancing the Scales of Anubis and would automatically be destroyed by Ammut the Devourer. As it was warned by the god Thoth in the Book of the Dead.

The Pharaoh however was arrogant enough to assume that his title would protect him. Arrogant enough to assume that having the blood of an innocent godling on his hands would not prevent him from ascending into the afterlife.

His arrogance in this matter would be his undoing.

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"On this day, as ordered by the Pharaoh Tutankhamen, the High Priestess Amneris the Blessed will be executed for her crime of attempted regicide by way of the sacred servants of Sobek."

Amneris only half listened to the words that marked her death with anger boiling inside her.

She knew she shouldn't have fought the Pharaoh, but she also knew that if she hadn't that the remainder of her life would be marked with nothing but consecutive rapes.

At least now she could die with dignity, instead of the shame of knowing she had tried to fight him.

The announcer continued rambling on with esoteric curses for her eternal damnation. She cared little for it, as she knew the prayers could not harm an innocent person, and instead she turned to face the pharaoh.

Like the bastard he was, the vile man was smirking smugly at her as he surveyed the ceremony. Her precious daughter was sleeping in the arms of a female servant who was standing beside the king.

Regret filled her as she realized that she would never see her daughter grow up.

"Move forward," a guard ordered as he pressed the tip of his spear into her back, forcing her towards the edge of the stone platform. A few more feet and she would find herself as dinner for an enormous scaly beast.

Steeling herself for the pain, she stepped to the edge and suppressed a shudder as she looked down at the sharp-toothed crocodiles that were impatiently awaiting their meal.

With one last breath she prepared to step off and meet her fate.

"STOP!" a familiar voice echoed over the stone accompaniment of the Temple of Sobek.

The Pharaoh waved his hand towards his guards who immediately swarmed, the newly arrived blessed. The blonde haired, pale skinned young man was dragged before the Pharaoh.

"Speak and tell me why it is you have interrupted this execution," Tutankhamen ordered.

When the boy did not answer right away, Tut narrowed his eyes and followed the line of sight of the interloper.

The boy's eyes were locked onto the sleeping face of his own golden haired daughter.

"I would advise you to keep your line of sight way from the princess if you wish to keep your eyes. Now, tell me your name and why you are here," The Pharaoh demanded, his patience wearing thin.

That seemed to get the green eyed boys attention, "My name is Khai and I've come to stop you from killing Amneris."

Fury flashed across the young king's face as he jumped to his feet.

"Now I understand, you must be the boy that the priestess Hedrea informed me of," he growled. The lower level initiate of Anubis had sent news of a 'blessed' boy who had shared Amneris' bed not two days ago; the same information that clinched the blessed girl's fate.

No one made a fool of the Great Pharaoh Tutankhamen and lived.

Grabbing a spear from the closest guard, he lunged at the defenseless and struggling boy, who was being held in place by no fewer than four of his largest guards.

A shriek of distress pierced the air, just as the head of the spear pierced the boy's chest.

"KHAI!" Amneris screamed from her place on the edge of the platform, not fifteen feet away, "You FUCKING bastard! I'll KILL YOU!"

Gathering all the magic in her body, Amneris cursed the man with everything she had.

"Death! I swear death and plague upon you and all who share your blood! The blood of the blessed with bring the end to your existence!"

Pure, hate-filled magic surged from her body as she struggled against the binds that were holding her arms behind her back.

Waves and waves of promised death washed over the occupants of the courtyard as the marble beneath their feet cracked and crumbled with Amneris' unbridled fury.

Using the last of her waning powers to break the wrong around her wrists, she sprinted to Khai, who was lying in a pool of his own blood. Blood that soaked the white linen she had wrapped around her torso as she kneeled by his side.

"Khai?" she whispered as grasped his shaking hand, "Don't die on me Khai! I need you."

"Pr-UNH" he managed. The spear had gone clean through his lung, causing dark blood to leak from mouth as he attempted to talk.

Instead of trying to speak, he simply brought his dimming eyes to hers.

'Promise you will end him,' he ordered with his thoughts.

"I will!" she promised, tears flowing from her eyes as the last of the life in his eyes was extinguished, leaving her clutching his blood covered corpse.

"A fitting end. Dying, stuck in the chest like the useless pig he is," the Pharaoh growled as he grabbed the sobbing girl by her long blonde hair.

Amneris no longer had the energy or will to fight him off, and allowed herself to be dragged back to the edge of the crocodile's pit.

"Any last words?" he snarled as he readied to toss her over the edge himself. He stopped short when he saw her unsettling smile, "Do you think it its funny that you are about to die?"

"No, I'm merely enjoying the thought that you won't live much longer than me," she replied coldly, with a smile so cold that it could have frozen the Nile.

Bringing his other hand down, he relished the feeling of his hand striking her face. It was this strike that caused her to fall backwards over the edge of the ten foot drop and into the pit of ravenous reptiles.

The feeling of triumph he felt at seeing the frigid bitch ripped to shreds was short lived.

"My lord?" the voice of one of his advisors called.

"What is it?!" he snapped, not turning away for a moment from the churning red waters beneath him.

"Y-your skin, your Majesty…i-its blackening!" the man yelped in surprised.

And with the blood of the two blessed lover spilt, the Pharaoh and the last vestiges of his corrupted family were plagued with the Black Death; a sickness that killed in minutes and caused its victim's flesh to blacken and rot.

An exquisitely painful death that was so swift that the once pristine courtyard was soon littered with the rotting corpses of the entire royal family.

The only survivor of the massacre being the Princess Nepthi, who would go on to rule over all of Egypt and bring about an unprecedented age of prosperity.

Nepthi would have two children, a son who would become the next king and a daughter who went on to marry a nobleman from a country known as Greece. Her daughter's daughter would then have a son who would marry a princess from the nation of Gaul. After several generations the line would culminate with the daughters of the Duke of Aquitaine, William the tenth, whose daughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine would become the Queen of France and then after an forced annulment of her first marriage, the Queen of England.

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Amneris' eyes shot open as she sat up in bed. Her breathing was heavy as she confusedly took in her surroundings.

"My Lady?" a servant asked concerned from the foot of the bed, "Are you alright?"

She was sitting in an enormous canopied bed, surrounded by lavish velvets and the like.

"Where is Khai? Where am I?"

"Khai, my lady? I don't know anyone by the name of Khai. But as to your second question, you are at Castle Aquitaine," the woman informed her, "Are you feeling alright? I know loosing ones father can be distressing. The king should have known better than to arrange your marriage so soon after the Duke's death.

"I'm quite alright, thank you Meredith," Eleanor replied, "I don't know what came over me."

With a curtsey the handmaiden left the room, leaving Eleanor once more to her own devices.

Her thoughts returned to the fading images of the nightmare she had been having.

It was odd, the more she tried to focus on the dream she had been having, the fuzzier it became.

Perhaps it was best if she were to forget the horrifying thoughts of being eaten by crocodiles and to instead get out of bed and get ready for her first meeting with her new fiancé, Prince Louis the VII.

She knew it was her duty to marry well. She was the Duchess of Aquitaine after all.

So as much as she loved her father, she had to put his death behind her and work towards making her new life work.

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"NINA!" a male voice called out, as large hands shook her from her troubled sleep.

"Huh, what?" she answered as she was shaken awake.

"Nina, I have to talk to you," Eddie answered as he continued shaking her.

"Unh, about what? I'm trying to sleep," Nina groaned.

"Did we die?"

That woke her up.

Sitting up, Nina turned to look at the boy.

"I was really hoping that was a normal nightmare," she sighed deeply.

"Shut up and go back to bed! I need my beauty sleep," Amber complained. The couple had only been together a little over a week and she was already sick of having her sleep interrupted every time Eddie decided it was a good idea to barge into their room and talk to Nina about something.

"In a minute," Eddie answered Amber before turning back to Nina, "So you do remember dying?"

Nina sighed again in exasperation.

"Yes, Eddie I remember you getting stabbed and dying, and then getting eaten by crocodiles. Happy? Can I go back to sleep now?" Nina growled.

She was so used to the dreams and then the sequential wake-up call by her boyfriend, that she was more irritated that she had been woken up before four, than by the fact that she had been painfully murdered.

"And that doesn't bother you?" he asked incredulously.

"I'm sure, that when the sun comes up or I switch to Neri that I'll feel something. Until then I'm too tired to care. GOOD NIGHT!" she finished by pulling the covers over her head.

"Do you remember anything about the crusades yet?" he asked.

"I think so, now go AWAY?" she ordered from under her pillow which she had just put over her face.

Eddie chuckled at her antics. He supposed she was right. The pair of them hardly got any restful sleep with all the memories being crammed into their heads each night.

Giving up his attempted interrogation, he decided to leave the room in favor of his own bed.

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A/N: Okay that's three chapters in one day. I'm probably going to take a break. It took me quite a while to write all of them and I'm a bit pooped O_e


	9. Trial of Fear

A/N: Please review PLEEEEEEEEEASE! It helps me write when I know that someone out there actually likes reading my work 9_9. I'd also like to thank all of you who reviewed in the past. Each one means a lot to me and motivates me to write more : )

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Chapter 9

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"Ms. Martin, would you please refrain from disrupting my class," Mr. Sweet requested with a tone that brooked no frivolity.

"I apologize, Mr. Sweet," Neri giggled as Khai's hand quickly removed itself from her thigh, "It won't happen again."

As soon as his father turned back to the black board, Khai allowed his younger personality to slip back into place. Perhaps a high school classroom was not the most inconspicuous place to flirt with one's wife.

Neri noted the change in demeanor and followed suit; the only noticeable change in the pair after such a transition was their relaxed postures.

Eddie smiled at her as she raised an eyebrow in question, 'What now?'

Over the last two weeks since Eddie's trip to the hospital, their telepathic abilities had improved to the point that the couple could have full conversations in public by doing nothing more than looking in the other's eyes.

'Now?' Nina thought admonishingly, 'Now we learn about enzymes.'

'AAAH! Come one Neens, can't we do something more interesting…like practice telekinesis?' he implored mentally, 'Don't make me beg!'

His hand reappeared on her knee.

'BEHAVE!' she ordered as her eyes flashed purple.

"EEEH!'

The chalk in Mr. Sweet's hand screeched loudly as it suddenly took on a mind of its own and moved a good foot to the side of the line he had been writing.

"Oh my!" his father exclaimed lightly, "Seems my hands are a bit shaky today."

Eddie grinned at his girlfriend in triumph, 'Now who needs to behave!'

With a quick flash of his eyes, a pink fuzzy pencil flew out of Amber's hand and clattered noisily across the floor.

'Really smooth,' Nina thought glibly as she heard Amber's indignant mutters. Checking to make sure no was watching the back two tables, Nina allowed her magic to flash out and fling the overtly feminine writing utensil back onto Amber's desk.

Alfie and Amber stared at them as Eddie grinned wickedly.

The blonde immediately snatched up the pencil and began scribbling something in her notebook, which she quickly ripped out and put up for them to read.

WAS THAT YOU!? the paper she was holding up practically shouted in all caps.

Nina merely smiled serenely in reply as her eyes flashed purple and her magic wrapped around the paper, crumpling it into a ball.

Both their friends' jaws dropped as Eddie brought a finger to his mouth and reminded them to be quiet.

They were in a classroom after all. It wouldn't do to draw attention to the fact none of them were taking notes.

Of course this was Eddie's cue to flick a tiny ball of paper at the back of his father's head, effectively drawing his attention back to the students.

"Ms. Millington!" Mr. Sweet snapped as his patience withered. He wasn't sure who had thrown that but they were definitely the most distracted looking, "If you and Mr. Lewis cannot concentrate on the lesson at hand then I am going to have to move you. Now turn to the front and pay attention!"

Nina and Eddie tried their best to look apologetic as they shuddered with repressed laughter.

Sometimes it was good to be a kid again.

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"ALFIE!" Amber nearly exploded, "How could you give me a stolen bracelet FROM VICTOR of all people for my BIRTHDAY! I SWEAR that sometimes you don't even seem to care about me at all!"

The children had returned to the house after school to find their possession haphazardly strewn across their rooms after an impromptu searched by Victor. Said event had cause the normally quiet conscience in Alfie surface, making him confess his crime, as it was simply too dangerous for Amber not to know that her gift was being hunted.

Apparently the bracelet, Fabian informed them, was needed in a ritual that would reawaken Robert Frobisher-Smythe. A ritual that if done incorrectly by the wrong person, would result in the resurrection of an evil entity that served the goddess Ammut.

Ammut was a divine being that devoured the souls of sinners that did not pass the Test of the Scales. Unfortunately for all involved, the goddess, who was essential to the disposal of evil souls, had grown discontent with her lot in life and was plotting to rise from the underworld and take over the mortal realm.

Something that the chosen ones fully intended to prevent. Unfortunately their every movement was being watched and Eddie had only just been cleared for any sort of vigorous activities, meaning that Sibuna was well behind on their mission to save the world.

"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me," Alfie begged as he cowered against the wall of the tunnels.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she assured. The dark skinned boy straightened up at her words, "MUCH!" she finished as she smacked his arm.

"OW! Hey! That's domestic abuse!" he complained as he nursed his arm.

"Shut up and stop being such a baby, before I show you what abuse really feels like!" the pink obsessed blonde ordered.

Amber's mouth suddenly stopped emitting sound.

"HAHAHA, You got silen-"

Alfie looked rather perturbed as he moved his mouth and found that the same had happened to him.

"Finally some peace and quiet," Amneris denoted in relief, "I normally wouldn't approve of using that spell on friends, but I completely understand why you did it in this case."

"Happy to serve, milady," Khai remarked wittily as the he walked alongside his wife.

The pair of now silent Sibuna members glared at the backs of their leaders.

Ever since Nina and Eddie had learned they could do magic, they had been practicing it every chance they could get.

Sadly for Amfie, this included silencing them every time one of their arguments went on longer than ten minutes.

"Are you going to stop arguing?" Amneris asked as they arrived at their destination, the Gate wall with the crocodile engraved on it.

The pair nodded in agreement. With a flick of her wrist the spell was lifted from the usually bickering teenagers.

"Is it really necessary to do that to us just because we were engaging in a healthy discussion?" Amber complained diplomatically.

"Yes," Khai and Neri said together. And that was that.

With that train of thought ended before it could leave the station, the chosen ones turned to the wall. They didn't have time for petty squabbling, they had to find the clue for the next trial.

"Spirits guide us," Khai intoned as he placed his hand around the now glowing rubies on Nina's bracelet.

"Servants of the Underworld, take this humble offering," Amneris added as the Osirian removed the rubies from the cuff, leaving it oddly smooth as the place settings for the jewels dissolved into the metal.

Khai continued and place the two rubies on opposite sides of the blue faience Ankh arms. Each ruby fit perfectly into the center of the identical Eyes of Ra that were engraved onto the shimmering Ankh that Eddie had pulled from the Sobekian's chest.

Immediately a new message appeared in the stone of the pedestal that had originally risen from the floor during their first visit to the Gate.

No sooner than Nina had finished writing the latest clue in her journal did a low skittering noise begin to echo through the corridor with promises of danger.

Anxiety mounting, the group did not wait for any possible threats to find them first. Running at full tilt the quartet pelted back towards the exit to the tunnels.

As they ran, Khai unsheathed his sickle sword, his favorite weapon which he often brought with him into the tunnels, and took the back of the group in case of an attack.

The skittering rose in volume as they took a right. They were still a good ways from the stove and were without even the slightest of clues as to what they could be up against.

"NERI! What in the name of Set is happening?" Khai called out as the skittering reached deafening levels.

"I didn't have time to fully translate it! It said something about the servants of Ahti and Khepri shall test us and something about overcoming fear and pain!"

"BLOODY BRILLIANT!" Khai cursed as they came up to the last corridor before the exit.

Amber was the first to scream as invisible insects began climbing their legs with spiny appendages.

"GET THEM OFFFF!" she shrieked hysterically as she kicked and tried to swat at the unseen creatures.

Alfie was too busy trying to rid himself of the bugs to scream.

The remaining two Sibuna members tried to stay calm as the giant spiny insects crawled over them. However this only lasted as long as their millennia old personalities remained in control. Unfortunately for this this wasn't long.

"Amneris! She's gone," Nina shouted as her more vulnerable teenage personality was violently shunted into the traumatic experience.

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT SHIT!" Eddie cursed as he knocked another of what felt like a fist-sized beetle from his shoulder, "I can't feel Khai either!"

Tiny hooked feet grasped at them as the hard shelled bugs climbed the children's pajama clad legs.

Over and under their clothes the heavy, slimy bodies of the insects scuttled, scratching and biting as they went.

Nina refrained from screaming as the invisible insects swarmed her. The clue had said that this was a test of fear. Maybe if she put her panic aside she would be able to pass the test.

'This isn't real, this isn't real' she chanted as she clenched her teeth and lips to prevent one of the insects from burrowing into her mouth.

Smacking the insects from her face, she looked over at her friends who were trying everything they could to escape the beetles.

Beetles?

Slapping away one of them away from her ear, Nina realized that she they were no longer invisible.

Thousands of iridescent scarab beetles, with sharp clinging legs, were scrambling over the quartet's skin and clothes.

Oddly, Amber and Alfie only have a handful of the insects on them. Looking down at herself and then over to Eddie, Nina realized that the swarming creatures were only aiming for the chosen ones.

"AMBER! ALFIE! RUN!" she managed before having to shut her mouth to refuse yet another beetle entrance. Knocking it away, she not so gently shoved the couple in the direction of the exit with her magic.

Once her friends were out of sight and away from the danger Nina jumped into action.

"Hold on to me Eddie!" Nina ordered as she grabbed the boy's hand.

The following explosion of magic, while enough to fling away and destroy the majority of the insects, was not fast enough to prevent that which the insects were created for.

Nina screamed in pain, as the largest and vilest of the bugs began burrowing its way into the flesh on the back of her neck through the bite mark it had created moments before the blast. It stretched her skin as it separated the Dermis from the muscle and settled into place.

And then the pain was gone. The scrabbling mass of the bug disappeared, leaving naught but a bluish tattoo in its place.

Normally one would think that the loss of pain would be a good thing. But in this case it was not. For the lack of pain meant that the beetle had accomplished its mission and was now injecting a continuous stream of venom into Nina's blood.

This was a sad thing indeed, because the venom of an Ahtian Scarab was known for causing extremely vivid hallucinogenic visions filled with the host's worst fears.

Even worse as they have been known to survive for up to six days within a human body, before the venom breaks down and the insect dies.

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A/N: Cliffie ;)

The more reviews I get the sooner I write the next chapter.


	10. Rotting Hands

A/N: Absolutely love all you reviewers :D You make writing worthwhile.

Read and review PLEEEEASE

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Chapter 10

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"I am going to kill you slowly and enjoy it," the voice promised coldly. The only light in the corridor came for the fiery sparks produced by her tormentor's knife scraping against the wall, as he walked towards her.

Turning left down the next corridor brought her to a dead end. It seemed that the faster she tried to run the slower she ran. No matter what she died it was as if the air was molasses. She could not breath, she was slowly suffocating as her lungs burned hellaciously within her chest.

She spun around in attempt to run down the other tunnel and instead came face to face with her nightmare.

"Did you really think that death would keep me from what was rightfully mine?" the Pharaoh mocked as he stepped towards her. His flesh was black and rotting in places, just as it had been the day he died. Pieces were sloughing from the grey muscles.

Before she could protest his touch, a rotting hand grabbed her by the neck and forced her up against a wall. Decaying lips inched closer to her tear stained face, as she struggled against the dead man with her all her might.

Spell after spell flashed through her mind and yet none took as her magic refused to surface.

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Nina shot up in bed, her heart pounding ferociously from the nightmare.

"It's alright," Eddie assured as he appeared out of the darkness of her room, where he been watching her worriedly, and gently wrapped an arm around her. With his free arm he lifted the cover and slid into the bed next to her.

"What happened?" Nina asked as she look down at her scrapped up arms, "The last thing that I remember was that we were in the tunnels and-"

"You were bitten by an Ahti Scarab," he began, "From what I could glean from the clue you found, it starts the Trial of Fear. Anyway you passed out and I carried you back. The others are worried about you. Do you think you can manage classes today? 'Cause we can always tell Trudy that you're not feeling well, if it's too much."

Nina closed her eyes for a moment and was immediately transported back to wall with the dead Pharaoh, "NO! I-I don't want to be alone today. I-I'll go to classes, just let me grab a shower and get dressed. I'll meet you downstairs."

"Take your time you've still got a couple hours before breakfast even starts and Amber and the others are in my room with Fabian trying to figure out what's going on with the scarab," Eddie explained. With a kiss to her forehead he slid back out of the bed and left the room.

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Knowing that she had a little more time than usual, Nina decided to indulge herself with a hot bath, in an attempt to soothe the aches that seem to rack her body.

It was, in a way, a method of therapy.

After locking the door, she stripped off her sweat-soaked sleepwear and stepped into the now full tub. With a deep sigh of relief, she allowed her tired body to sink into the relaxing heat of the water.

She could still feel the grasping feel of rotting skin on her body and so immediately set out to rectify the sensation. Thoroughly lathered, she scrubbed every inch of her body as she tried to concentrate on less morbid thoughts.

"I can make the pain stop," a voice whispered in her ear. Whipping towards the source of the sound, Nina found herself face to face with empty air.

'It's the trial, nothing more, it's the trial, nothing more. I can't let the fear get to me, it's the trial, nothing more,' she mentally chanted to herself.

Looking down into the now black water, Nina was confronted with the rotting face of the Pharaoh.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"It won't take much effort, all you have to do is STOP BREATHING!" the whisper suddenly morphed into a shouted demanded as the light bulb in the center of the ceiling shattered, raining shards of glass over her body.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH," she screamed loudly, unstopping as she realized that she could no longer move her arms within the water. It was like her body was frozen in place. She couldn't escape the monsters innumerable hands as what felt like several slimy, fingers wrapped around her limbs and throat, pulling her deeper and deeper into the thick black blood.

The lights over the vanity quickly followed their counterparts, as Nina tried desperately to escape the water as it turned to cement, the weight of the thickening liquid pulling her further under.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" she continued as the sludge began to cover her sinking face, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GUH!"

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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The piercing continuous scream echoed, throughout the entire house, waking up even the most lackadaisical boarders.

"Where is that infernal racket coming from?" Jerome demanded irritably as he joined his housemates as they congregated in the girls' corridors.

"Not sure, but seeing as everyone else is out here, I would say it is Nina is screaming in the bathroom," Mara explained as Victor backed the boys away from the door after handing Trudy the bathroom key.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Christ above, she's a fucking banshee!" Joy complained as Trudy frantically tried and retried the key, only to find that it wouldn't open the lock.

"Victor! It's not unlocking! Are you sure this is the right key?" Trudy asked panicked as the scream continued.

"Move out of the way! I'll open the door," Eddie ordered as he pushed Trudy out of the way.

"MR. MILLER! You will NOT be barging into the girl's loo!" Victor admonished with a growl.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GUH!"

Everyone in the hall stood stock still as the silence from the lack of screaming descended over them.

"It was probably just a spider," Jerome rolled his eyes, "Girls can be so dramatic."

Most of the girls in the hall turned and glared at him.

"Ms. Martin?" Victor called through the bathroom door, "Can you please unlock the door?"

Silence.

"Ms. Martin? Please stop this foolishness!" Victor demanded.

"MOVE!" Khai snarled, his voice nearly animalistic as he pulled a fist back, as if he were going to punch through Victor's head.

Dodging out of the way just in time to avoid the young man's fist, Victor was left wide eyes as the solid wooden door was blasted off its hinges and flat to the floor from a single punch.

Khai vaulted through the doorway and nearly cried out himself, as he saw Amneris' face inches below the water level of the bath tub, a slow stream of bubbles trailing from her mouth.

"Oh god!" Trudy cried out as she reached the edge of the tub. Working together they lifted her out of the tub, wrapping her with a towel that had been sitting on the toilet, probably waiting to be used by Nina when she got out of the bath.

"Is she breathing?" Trudy asked as she looked at her young charge's death white skin.

"Yes, she's breathing," Eddie sighed with relief. She'd only stopped screaming twenty seconds before he'd pulled her from the tub.

The female occupants of the house were crowded around the doorless entry, as Victor ushered the boys down the stairs, and away from the naked Ms. Martin.

"What happened?" Mara whispered horrified as she and Joy saw the shattered light bulbs. What was even more concerning were the numerous, large hand-shaped bruises that were appearing on every visible inch of their unconscious friends throat, arms and ankles.

"Not sure, she was unconscious in the tub when we got – OH MY," Trudy exclaimed.

Before the house mother could finish her explanation, she saw that Nina has opened her eyes and was staring blankly towards the bathtub.

"Nina? Sweetie? Are you alright?" Trudy asked slowly, hoping not to startle the poor girl.

"Khai? I don't want to die, Khai," she whispered dully, as if she were talking about something as plebeian as the weather. Her eyes never left the tub, or more specifically the faucet, which was still dripping, "He tried to kill me. I don't want to die, Khai. Don't let him kill me, not again. Never again, Khai. Please."

"Shhh, it's alright. You're fine," Eddie tried to reassure her as she continued to stare at the dripping faucet.

"Nina? Sweetheart, can you tell me what happened?" Trudy tried carefully, she'd never had to deal with anything like this before.

"He wants to kill me, he's angry that I tricked him, he's so angry. He told me to stop breathing. That I belong to him and that he'll be back to take what's his.- Ungh. OW my head! Where am I? What happened?" Nina asked as she sat up and found herself wrapped in a towel on the bathroom floor, next to a broken door and surrounded by Eddie, Trudy and the other girls.

The last thing she remembered was being pushed by rotting hands into cement. Shuddering at the thought, she tried to stand up and nearly fell back into the tub.

Stopping she stared at the faucet of the bath again. It was rhythmically dripping, fat drops of red liquid into the lukewarm bath.

"Is that…blood?" Amber spoke up from where she was standing with a speechless Patricia.

Before anyone could answer, Eddie reached into the water and yanked the plug from the drain.

"Probably just rust," he answered, "Let's get Nina back to her room, so she can get ready for school."

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Trudy had tried protesting. Insisting that Nina should stay home and rest after her ordeal. Nina quickly countered this, saying that she was fine and that she had only slipped in the tub.

Before the house mother could protest more, the girl in question had hurried from the house with her book bag, and was quickly followed by several of her house mates.

As they were walking across the lawn, Nina found herself confront by her worried friends.

"What the hell happened?" Patricia asked as she walked alongside her friend, "Anything to do with the bug thing Amber and Alfie were going on about last night?"

Nina merely nodded, she was still shaken by the hallucination, if that was what if really was.

"Was it a nightmare?" Amber asked, "I saw a HUGE spider once, it was like the size of my face, and I had a nightmare about it crawling on me. Was it like that?"

The ridiculous innocent association brought the traumatized Paragon out of her daze, "No, Amber it wasn't like that at all. I thought Fabian explained this too you guys."

"He tried, we didn't understand a word he said," Alfie announced, earning a humph from the annoyed Fabian. The usually meek boy had been withdrawn since he had broken up with his girlfriend, especially since she was now openly in a relationship with his best friend.

"I told you, Nina was bitten by the Ahti Scarab, which injects a potent and continuous venom that contains a neurotoxin that stimulates the amygdala. In turn the amygdala releases a chemical that is similar in molecular structure and has the same physiological reaction as an improper dosage of Lysergic acid diethylamide. It is rumored to be created and controlled by Ahti the Egyptian goddess of fear. What about that wasn't clear?" Fabian reiterated irritably.

The entirety of Sibuna merely stopped and stared at him as if he had grown another head.

"All of it," Eddie announced as he shook his head to remove the webs of confusion, "Anyway, to put it in layman's terms, Nina got bitten by a bug that burrowed under her skin and isn't going to die for six days. For those six days she's going to be having hallucinations as if she were on a bad acid trip."

The previously confused group murmured their understanding as they continued their walk towards the school.

"That's what I JUST said!" Fabian exclaimed, nearly twitching.

"No, you said the Ati Scab has pot venom that has a newrowtoxin that stemates the amigy thingy and that is has a structure with a reaction like Listerine death and is made by a fear goddess," Amber replied, "Eddie said that Nina got bit by a drug bug and is seeing scary things. That's much easier to understand."

Everyone stared at Amber this time, "How about we just get to class, you guys are bad enough without missing out on anymore education," Fabian grumbled as he walked ahead of them.

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Intriguing.

Intriguing was the best was to describe the events in the girls bathroom this morning.

Jerome once again found himself confronted by yet another weird occurrence. What really cinched his decision to follow the new mystery was that the strange occurrence had happened to one of the people he knew to be involved in the group that was responsible for his loss of memory.

Even if it was the last thing he did, he would find out what they were up to as well as recovering the lost time.

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A/N: Day one of the fear trial commences :D

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW


	11. The Will to Live

Written in memory of Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, a beautiful person who let the fear of living with the past, take her life away. I can only hope one day that justice will be done and her rapists punished.

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Chapter 11

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The longest a human could survive without sleep was eleven days and then only if the conditions were optimal. When stress was a factor, the time was brief.

Nina Martin had not slept in five. Not since she had awoken from the first nightmare.

No manner of lying in bed and staring at a dark ceiling could force her to let go of her fear and return to that hell. So instead she remained a wake, ingesting anything and everything that was labeled as having caffeine or 'energy'.

As she cracked open another green and black can of Monster Energy Drink, the frazzled teenage girl tried once again, to call up her other half; to call up Amneris.

Of course it did not work. She had not really expected it to.

Since the Trial had started, Nina had been completely disconnected from her past self, and was sorely missing the composure she had when the ancient priestess was in control. Her magic had apparently gone with her as well, leaving the now defenseless girl to face her worst fears alone.

Swallowing thickly, Nina ignored the feeling of maggots wriggling in her throat, praying to the gods to beg them to make her everything she ate stop doing that.

Finishing the drink quickly, she shuddered as the soft larvae turned to scuttling legs the more she drank. 'Just a hallucination', she reminded herself.

"Are you not tired, child?" the rasping voice asked as she stood up and resumed her pacing. Pacing; it was another way to stay awake. As long as she was standing, she wouldn't fall asleep, "If you sleep, you will feel better."

The voice had been her constant, unwelcome companion in the days since she had been bitten.

It giggled in the background each time she shivered with fear. It chuckled at her panic as she fought off hallucinatory beasts. It outright guffawed as she curled on her side, shuddering, as she tried to ignore the feel of rotting hands on her body.

"No," Nina whispered into the darkness of the room, "I would rather die than let that abomination touch me! I don't care if it is just a hallucination."

"Abomination?" the voice scolded, "Is HE the abomination? Was it not you that spurned his love and all the generous things he offered you?"

"I didn't love him," she protested dully. The voice has been saying things like this since the beginning.

"Was it not You, who betrayed him and the kingdom by placing a false queen on the throne? Was it not YOU that rotted his body and soul with your curse, making him the monster you see him as?"

"I _**had**_ to do those things! It was the only way!" Nina tried to explain, her excuses sounding hollow even to her own ears.

"Perhaps it is YOU who are the monster, Nina Martin."

She WAS the one who had broken her vow of servitude to the temple, and then in a continued act of selfish pandering passed off her own bastard child as the chosen heir to the throne.

She should have just run. She should have spared everyone the pain of her actions, but she had not. Instead she had remained in the palace and allowed herself to be pampered as if she were a princess and then spurned the affection of the man who had ordered her taken care of.

She was selfish.

Looking back she _**had**_ brought all this pain onto herself. She had sinned over and over again without penance and had stupidly expected it to turn out some other way.

She was a FOOL.

Perhaps she deserved no better than she had done to the Pharaoh and his family.

Perhaps she too deserved death.

Were there not cliffs but a few miles from here that bordered an abandoned quarry?

"Yes. Go there, priestess! Atone!" the voice demanded.

Yes, perhaps it WAS best to just end this constant cycle of rebirth, pain and death.

Ripping out a sheet of paper she wrote down her goodbyes and left them on her pillow.

"Would not a moratorium on your pain be a boon, priestess?" the voice encouraged, as it followed her silent descent down the stairwell, "Just a quick fall from the cliffs and all this fear and pain will be allayed until your next reincarnation is mature. Perhaps she'll be stronger. Strong enough to survive this pain. One can only hope."

She found herself nodding her head minutely in agreement to the voice's words as she carefully clicked the front door behind her and began to trudge barefoot through the frosted dew and thin layer of snowflakes that were forming.

How had November come without her noticing?

"How fitting? The first snow fall is considered the first step towards the death of the year, and here you are. Walking towards your own. At least you're not alone."

The voice began to cackle that maddening cackle that brought tears to her eyes and made her scrape at her eardrums. She ignored trickle of blood that came as one of her fingernails managed to slice through the skin of her ear.

Ignore the blood as always. At least this time it was her own blood on her hands. Looking up, she shuddered as the hallucinations returned in full force.

Snakes bite at her flesh, spiders the size of chairs swarmed her as rotting hands followed her.

It was a final accompaniment of dread, as she marched towards the rising sun; towards her death.

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"Alfie Lewis! If you ate any faster your stomach would explode!" Trudy chided the dark skinned boy as he scarfed yet another pancake without chewing, "I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you had a hollow leg!"

"Sorry Trudes, but it's Saturday AND it's snowing!" Alfie announced unabashed, "Faster I eat, the faster I get to play!"

"I'm of half a mind to make you wait forty-five minutes before I let you go," the house mother admonished.

Everyone at the table immediately started eating slower despite the words being directed at the resident trouble maker.

"Much better."

As soon as the matron had returned to the kitchen and had her back turned, the entirety of the eating students returned to their previous pace. All were eager to play in the snow.

"DONE!" Alfie exclaimed as he shot up from his seat.

"Hey! Wait for us! Nina and Amber haven't even come down yet," Patricia complained as she finished off her own plate. The others were standing up to join Alfie as he entered the foyer.

"Here!" a feminine voice shouted as a familiar blonde came skipping down the stairs.

"Has anyone told you that you like pink entirely TOO much?" Patricia asked, causing Mara and Joy to giggle.

"There is no such thing as TOO much pink!" Amber rebutted as she twirled in her bright pink winter ensemble, "Now let's go! I have a snowman to make!"

The rest of the house started moving to the door with this proclamation. Fabian however had noticed something amiss.

"Where's Nina?" Fabian asked, causing the others to stop and quite a few to make murmurs of complaint.

"Why do you even care? I thought you two broke up like a whole month ago?" Jerome rolled his eyes at the latest attempt to postpone the snow day, "Even Eddie doesn't want to wait, and he's her boyfriend."

This caused the groups' heads to swivel towards the aforementioned American.

He didn't seem to be paying attention to them though. He was standing in the open door frame, perfectly still, as he concentrated on something the others couldn't perceive.

"NINA, NO!"

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Once more the house was talking to him; this time with a sense of utmost urgency.

"Where's Nina?" he heard Fabian ask in the background.

'The trial will claim her if you are not fast enough,' the familiar 'voice' of the house warned as it filled his mind with visions of Nina, first a tear stained note on a pillow, and then her, slowing walking, barefoot through the woods. It then fast forwarded to her sitting on a large flat stone that protruded from the edge of a high cliff. It continued, drowning out Jerome's words as Nina stood up from her seated position, wrapped her arms around her chest and pushed herself from the cliff.

"NINA, NO!"

"Eddie?" Mara asked with concern at his sudden projection.

Without answering Eddie turned and vaulted himself through the crowd and up the stairs, tears already forming in his eyes.

He could not lose her again.

He _**would**_ not lose her again!

Ignoring the sounds of feet following him, he burst into Nina's room and made a beeline for the previously envisioned piece of paper, sitting morosely upon her pillow.

Her bed didn't look like it had been slept in, merely sat on at the very most.

"Eddie?! This is MY room! You can't just…Eddie? Are you alright?" Amber asked as she entered the room, closing the door behind her and took in the sight of her friend and leader.

He had sunk to his knees in front of Nina's bed and was clutching a note as he stared at the wall.

"Read it," Eddie demanded as he fluidly stood, "READ IT! You were supposed to be watching her!"

Amber nearly cried as the man in front of her growled his accusation, his eyes flashing with blue light.

The others were murmuring in the hall as they listened in on the argument. They didn't want to come in and break up what seemed to be an interesting piece of drama.

Amber lead out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding, and carefully took the paper from his hand to read it.

_**Dear Beloved**_

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"It's been quiet in there for a while. Reckon it's safe to go in?" Joy asked as they eavesdropped on the quiet sobs that seemed to be coming from Amber.

The rest of the group shushed her as the noises inside the room became louder.

"Eddie? I-I…I am SO sorry! I thought she was fine. She-"

"You stupid, child! You didn't think! You KNEW what she was going through and you ignor-"

"EDDIE!" Patricia snarled as she opened the door and slammed it behind herself, "I don't care what is happening, there is NO reason to yell at Amber like that!"

The group outside the door held their breath as the sound of paper rustling took over for a moment.

"AMBER! You were supposed to be watching her!" Patricia's indignant turnabout came through the door.

Suddenly the door opened.

"Alfie, Fabian, Nina's missing somewhere near a quarry. Let's go," Patricia ordered as she swept through the befuddled crowd and pelted down the stairs. Reaching the bottom of the steps she turned and realized that neither of them had followed her and glared at both as she pulled a hand over her left eye and continued out the door.

Immediately upon seeing that signal the pair practically fell down the stairs after her. A moment later, Amber ran from her room, her face stained with tears, and followed them.

Before the assembled group could react, a loud crash came from the bedroom the blonde had vacated, quickly followed by a similarly distraught Eddie who raced down the stairs in record time and joined the others outside.

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"What the hell just happened?" Mara asked Jerome and Joy, who were the only ones remaining.

That was a good question.

"Haven't a clue, but I bet a quick looksee into the offending room might tell us something," Jerome grinned conspiratorially. So what if he had his own agenda? Let it not be said that Jerome Clarke wasted any opportunities. And THIS was a golden opportunity.

"I wanna see what crashed," Joy grinned, "Eddie's going to be in a world of trouble when Amber tells Trudy he made her cry, and wrecked her room."

Opening the door the three stared wide-eyed at the over turned bed that had somehow ended up on top of and perpendicular to Amber's.

"Talk about temper tantrum. Eddie's got some serious anger issues," Mara commented as she nudged some of the items that had been displaced with her foot.

Joy threw caution to the wind and ignored the personal belongings beneath her feet. As if it were her own room, the impetuous girl began rifling through Nina's things, occasionally holding up an item of clothing and admiring it. After discarding a number of the items, she slipped a pair of golden cuffs onto her wrists.

"Bit loose, but they're pretty," Joy admired the items before returning to her digging, still wearing the impermissibly borrowed jewelry.

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Jerome was sitting on the floor reading a piece of wrinkled paper intently.

_**Dear beloved,**_

_**I tried to be strong, but it seems that reality catches up to everyone in the end.**_

_**I am sorry that I could not be the woman that you and the others needed me to be. I am sorry I was not able to overcome my past. In the end it was the constant reminders of all my sins, and the self-disgust I felt that undid me. When I realized that every bad thing that has happened to us was my fault, I simply could not in good conscience continue. I could not continue to let you down.**_

_**I think the worst part is that no matter how much I tell myself that it was all just a bad dream, I cannot seem to forget the feel of that man's hands on my body. I cannot forget all the people who lost their lives because of my mistakes. **_

_**Because of my lies. **_

_**Because of my stupidity and my pride, we both missed out on raising our daughter and for that I am truly sorry.**_

_**I have been selfish and I do not deserve a man as wonderful as you Eddie. **_

_**With all the love I have left in my soul, good-bye.**_

_**Nina Martin**_

_**Ps. Tell the others I love them. Lead them well. Sibuna **_

"Sibuna," he whispered as he looked down at the last word and traced the small illustration of a hand next to an eye with a L shaped line next to it.

Why does that name sound so familiar?

The word brought flashes of masks and memories of kidnapping.

It wasn't everything he'd lost but it was enough for him to come to a certain understanding.

"Those bloody bastards! They fucking mind wiped me!" Jerome exclaimed suddenly as the epiphany came. It wasn't a hand over and eye! It was a hand over part of a face, the L was a nose!

SI-fucking-BUNA! It was a secret society!

"Jerome?" Mara asked bewildered by the second sudden, inexplicable outburst of the day, "What's wrong?"

"MAGIC! It's REAL!" Jerome exclaimed, ignoring the stares of the two girls, "They thought they could just take my memories and I wouldn't find out! I'll show them! Those bloody bastards messed with the wrong mind!"

"JEROME?!" Joy cut off his soliloquy with an expression demanding explanation, "What in the same of all that is holy are you going on about?!"

"SIBUNA!" he replied, "Don't you remember Joy? You died! They brought you back!...They-they erased my memory of it all!"

Mara was staring at her boyfriend with a look that clearly said she thought he was delusional. That is until she looked at Joy and instead of seeing a similar look, she saw a look of understanding.

"I-I can't remember," Joy whispered, "When I try to bring it up all I see is fog. All I remember is something about some man named Rufus Zeno..or was it Renee?"

"RUFUS!" Jerome nearly shouted, "It was Rufus! He's the one who kidnapped Eddie and I, He also kidnapped Patricia…I-…I worked for him. I was helping him!"

The young man seemed on the verge of despair at this adumbration, "I betrayed them. They couldn't trust me, so they wiped my memory of everything that happened."

"They-"

"Can you PLEASE explain what on earth is going on?" Mara implored her two friends who were standing there staring at each other.

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"It's quite beautiful," Nina agreed with the voice.

She was currently sitting on a large flat boulder that protruded from the side of the cliff, allowing her to swing her legs over the hundred foot precipice. The view was of an open limestone quarry, its bright blue water shimmering with the colors of the sunrise.

"A fitting place to die," the voice replied, "and the sunrise is especially exquisite. It's almost as if Ra was welcoming you."

The low hanging orb of light was casting rose colored rays across the landscape as it slowly ascended into the sky.

"Will I get to see my daughter again?" Nina asked her eyes closed as she enjoyed the warmth the sun offered her. The rest of her body was stiff and numb from the hours she had spent in the snow. Her snow soaked, white, night gown offered little protection as it clung to her shivering frame.

"Yes, she's waiting for you. Death is the only way to see her again," the voice answered, "Death is the only way out."

The voice was no longer harsh and cold as it had been throughout the trial. Now it was warm and comforting. Sweetly feminine instead of harshly male. Perhaps even the most evil of beings had good somewhere within them.

"What about my parents. Will I see them again?" she asked as yet another tear streamed down her face.

"Yes, they are waiting for you, they love you. Never forget that," the voice urged as it whispered in her ear.

The feeling of warm arms wrapped around her in a hug as she scooted forward another inch towards the edge.

"What about Eddie? This will break his heart," Nina thought despondently, "And Gran. How could I have forgotten about Gran? This will kill her."

"They do not have to deal with this pain. You do," the voice expressed, "Just a few more inches and all your pain will go away."

The blond moved forwards a little more.

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"Okay, just to recap. Sibuna is pretty much all of the students in Anubis House but us? And they deal with supernatural disasters that are ancient Egyptian in origin?"

"Yes, though technically, Joy and I were both members at one point or another," Jerome pointed out, "So you're really the only person who hasn't been in Sibuna."

Joy glared at him for his lack of tact, "What I want to know is why I don't remember what amounts to a whole YEAR of my life!"

"I dunno, I didn't lose that much, but I remember something about being kidnapped and even that's very hazy. I also remember being a member of Sibuna at one point," Jerome replied.

Mara stared at them like the whole world had gone crazy, "You do realize that this all sounds crazy don't you!"

Joy and Jerome looked at her.

"I suppose," Jerome answered, "The only way to know for sure is to go after those memory stealing bastards and ask them."

Before they could respond, the boy turned on his heel and marched out of the room, intent on confronting the perpetrators.

With a glance between them to confirm their next action, the two girls followed after him.

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"Hurry up!" Fabian ordered Amber as she lagged behind the others, "If you don't hurry, I'm going to leave you behind!"

"These boots aren't meant for running!" Ambers shot back as she tried to pick up speed. Alfie, Patricia and Eddie had gone ahead with Eddie at the front, running at break neck speeds.

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Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead.

Khai was chanting to himself as he allowed his magic to assist his speed.

He was nearing the edge of the quarry going nearly twenty miles an hour and had to use magic to prevent himself from falling off the cliff. Even with his enhanced physique, a fall from that height, not tempered by magic, would still kill him.

"Nina!" he yelled out, hoping she would answer and allow him to find her, "NINA!"

"Eddie!" a male voice shouted as its owner skidded to a stop, "I see something on the other side!"

Alfie had just arrived on his bike, with Patricia on the handle bars.

Focusing his enhanced vision, Khai stared horrified as a familiar blonde figure in white night dress, wrapped her arms around herself and stepped off the cliff. The slightly translucent fabric of her dress fluttered around her as she plummeted to her death.

"NOOO!"

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"What about Amber?" Nina asked herself aloud, "I'll never get to laugh at her ridiculously pink outfits again. This will crush her."

"But you won't have to deal with earthly problems anymore," the voice replied.

"Problems? Like what? Having friends that love me?" She spat back, "Smiling when Aflie does a magic trick? Or going on adventures with Patricia?"

"No, problems like, working your life away, being in debt, knowing your daughter has been dead for millennia, always remembering the pain you have endured, watching your friends die and grieving them," the voice prompted as its invisible arms hugged her harder, "This will be a release from all that pain."

"NO!" Nina snapped back, trying to push the voice away, "those are all a part of life! Life is a precious thing!"

It was as if a shroud of depression had been lifted from her. The crawling feeling of insects and the monsters surrounding seemed to abate as she stood up.

At that moment she realized her fear was a palpable thing, a miasma of darkness surrounding her in a haze. Pseudopods of tangible fear extended from the wall and grasped for her.

"I refuse," she growled with anger, "I refuse to allow the pain I have felt and the pain I may feel to prevent me from feeling the pleasure of happiness and love. I refuse your insidious words you evil hag! I refuse the darkness you preach and I SWEAR with all of my being and on my immortal soul that I shall persevere. I shall show courage and embrace my fear instead of taking the easy way out. I realize now, that there are other options, that life is never so bad as to give up the chance to be happy. Instead I shall fight for all that is good. I will not fear the past or memories of pain! I WILL LIVE! For I AM Nina Martin and I AM Amneris!"

The miasma retreated into itself, becoming smaller and smaller as it concentrated into a single form.

The pharaoh.

"My child, my sweet, beautiful daughter," the voice, now sweet and comforting called to her, "You are strong. Never let anyone tell you otherwise."

Turning towards the voice, Amneris was gifted with the sight of an ethereal women with luscious black hair floating in mid-air. Her purple eyes and golden skin shimmered with her aura.

"Isis," Neri exclaimed as she fell to her knees and bowed.

"Most cherished daughter," Isis spoke, offering her hand to the young girl, "Do not kneel. I am your mother, not your ruler."

Taking the offered hand, Nina returned to her feet and was pulled into a hug so warm it felt as if the rays of the sun itself had wrapped its arms around her. The chill of the winter air no longer touched her skin.

"Mother," Neri sobbed, "Why? Why did you say those thing?"

"Until now the voice was your own doubt. In the end though, my words were to test you. You see the Trial of Fear is not one that many survive. Often they allow their fears to control them and use death as a means to escape. They lack the wisdom to see the light in the world and instead allow the darkness to consume them. Suicide is selfish. Those who chose it do not see that there are people who love them and who will be greatly hurt by their actions," Isis explained, "I am thankful that you were strong. You realize that life has much to offer and that dying at your own hand would steal that happiness not just from yourself but from those who love you."

The warm embrace ended as the arms retreated so she could turn to face the rotting pharaoh that still stood near them.

"This is your fear. As long as you carry it with you, you will not be able to pass this trial," Isis explained.

Taking a deep breath Amneris stepped towards the monster that stalked her nightmares and wrapped her arms around him, "Today is the day you die."

She was truly embracing her fear.

The Decrepit corpse dug the nails of its decaying hands deep into her flesh as it fought her, its teeth buried themselves into her shoulder as she used all her strength to drag it to the edge of the cliff.

"Today is the day I am set free!"

With one last shove she was falling from the cliff towards the deep blue-green of the quarry lake beneath her.

She nearly shouted in triumph as the putrefying skin disintegrated and was replaced once more by the welcome warmth of her mother's arms.

In the distance she could hear someone shouting but the exhaustion that came from a week without sleep finally took over, forcing her eyes closed.

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Eddie nearly fell to the ground in shock and relief as a shimmer of light surrounded Nina stopping her body from falling and began floating back up and towards him.

"I believe she is in need of medical treatment," a melodious female voice said as the light lowered Nina's unconscious body to the ground in front of them, "If it were not forbidden for me to interfere in the trials I would have healed her myself, but alas I must ask you to hurry and do so in my stead."

And just like that the light and the voice were gone.

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Jerome, Mara and Joy had not been fast enough to witness the on goings at the quarry but they had been able to catch up to Amber and Fabian who were greeted moments later by a hurried Eddie Miller who was carrying an unconscious and bleeding Nina, as well as Alfie on a bike with Patricia on the handle bars.

"What happened?" Mara asked concerned.

Of course she was ignored as the procession they had been following did an about turn and raced back towards the house.

In fact not a question was answered until Nina had been loaded into an ambulance and rushed to the hospital with Eddie at her side.

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"Can SOMEBODY, PLEASE explain to me what is going on?" Mara nearly shouted as the occupants of the house assembled in the living room. Victor had followed the ambulance with Eric in the headmaster's car and Trudy was outside speaking to a social worker that seemed to materialize out of thin air.

"Nina was playing in the woods, tried to climb a tree and fell," Patricia lied succinctly.

"You really expect us to believe that practical, Nina Martin, would go outside when its ten degrees, in nothing but a thin nightgown just to climb a tree before the sun even came up," Jerome snapped, "Cut the bullshit! We know you did something to our memories and that your part of some secret group. Now tell us what's going on before we go to the teachers."

Sibuna merely stared wide-eyed at the trio.

"Ah, well, that…that changes things," Fabian replied quietly.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed. This was a really hard chapter for me to write.

Please review! It means a lot to me and helps me write.


	12. Social Worker Anxiety

Also to that special minority that got to read the unfinished version of this chapter that my darling (idiot) cousin posted when I wasn't looking. Sorry, not much I can do to control the little loveable child (stranglable brat)

Read and review

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Chapter 12

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"Severe sleep deprivation, hypothermia, frostbite, a foreign object in the back of her neck, deep fingernail puncture wounds to the arms and torso, and a human bite mark to the clavicle," the doctor listed off the oddities to the social worker who seemed to appear the moment the examination had finished.

"Do you have any idea what happened?" Michelle Bridgewater asked intrigued. This made for the third hospitalization of a student from Anubis House in the last eight months; each one with more and more bizarre maladies.

"The boy who came in with her, says that she fell out of a tree," the doctor replied with a tone of incredulity.

"I see. Well, I'll have to interview him, where is he?" she asked politely. She was going to get to the bottom of this, and save those poor endangered students, if it was the last thing she did.

"Down the hall the last door on the left," the doctor answered, "He hasn't left her side."

Following the man's directions, she quickly found herself knocking on the appropriate door.

"Come in," a muffled reply came through the door. Opening the door she found herself face to face with none other than Eddie Miller, "You! What are you doing here?"

He looked remarkably healthy for someone who had been stitched back together only weeks ago.

"I'm being a good boyfriend and visiting my girlfriend in the hospital," Eddie answered smartly, "The better question would be, 'What are YOU doing here?'"

"I'm investigating the rise in severe injury to the residents of Anubis House. It is my duty to keep you children safe, after all," Michelle the Social worker curtly bit out. It didn't help her mood any that the boy seemed to laugh at her words.

"We're hardly children," Eddie muttered to himself.

Michelle ignored that for more important things, "Mr. Miller, can you please tell me in your own words how Ms. Martin came to be this way?"

The corner of Eddie's lip seemed to twitch.

"Well, Nina was ever so excited about playing in the snow and forgot to dress properly for the cold. She also tried to climb a tree but alas, my girlfriend isn't the best tree climber and injured herself falling out of it," Eddie sighed as if Nina's not so pragmatic actions were an inconvenience at best.

"Are you really trying to tell me that Nina Martin received her injuries from falling out of a tree?" she asked him, anger seeping into her disbelieving tone.

"Yes, I'm afraid she's not the most coordinated, poor thing," Eddie explained in a self-commiserating fashion.

"What about the bite mark on her shoulder? It's from an adult and was deep enough to need stitches," she parried expertly.

"Yes. It is rather unfortunate that out of all the trees she could have climbed, my Nina had to choose an undiscovered species of biting tree. Tsk bloody shame," Eddie answered sincerely.

"So if I go out into the forest, you're really telling me that I'm going to find a biting tree," the social worker snapped sarcastically.

"No, Alfie chopped it down and burned it for its transgressions against Nina," Eddie replied still straight faced.

"What about the fingernail marks?" the social worker was beginning to become annoyed.

"Must have been the rare fingernail bush," Eddie answered, "Alfie probably burned that by now too. He's a right pyro."

Michelle Bridgewater had to count backwards from ten to prevent herself from strangling the boy.

"Let me guess, you also have a magic rose plant somewhere in these magic woods that implants stone bugs in the backs of young girls necks?" the social worker twitched, holding up a small jar with a thumb sized gold and amethyst scarab, that she had dug out of her purse.

"So THAT's where that got off too," Eddie answered swiping the jar and discreetly depositing it in one of his many pockets, "Well, never let anyone tell you that scavenger hunts aren't dangerous."

"ARRRGH! Why won't you tell me what's going on! I could help you! I can stop whoever is hurting you from doing it again!" she nearly shouted.

"Whoever said anyone was hurting us?" Eddie snapped, his humorous façade dropping to a cold anger, "We can take care of ourselves."

The sudden turn from jocularity to solemnity caught the woman off guard. These poor children, having to hold their pain in; having to pretend nothing was wrong.

She would fix this.

And with this latest report of injuries she knew she could get the appropriate approval for her plan.

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"What on earth do you mean you have a warrant to have all the children examined?" Eric Sweet asked incredulous, "What for?"

"Headmaster, I'm not sure how this hasn't come to your attention, but in less than a year three students of the same house were hospitalized with severe and inexplicable injuries," she answered.

"Inexplicable?" Mr. Sweet asked, not really liking where this was going.

"In February, Alfred Lewis was admitted to the Urgent care center with spasmodic fits after having been poisoned with a seemingly nonpoisonous liquid. Not even two months ago, your own son was hospitalized with severe blood loss, sword related injuries and a large crocodile bite. This morning, Nina Martin was admitted with hypothermia and frost bite, which for the time of the year are almost normal. However, she also had a large human bite mark, fingernails tracks on her arms and torso, severe sleep deprivation and a piece of jewelry lodged under the skin in her neck," she elaborated, "At the rate this is going, the next student is going to be admitted to the morgue instead!"

"M-morgue?" Eric whimpered. He never was the strongest willed of the Society, and having the death of a student on his conscience wasn't something he thought he could stand, "O-of course, I'll phone the house mother and tell her to gather the students. Call whoever you need."

Michelle Bridgewater grinned in triumph, "Thank you for your cooperation. Please call your son and tell him he must participate in examinations."

The meek man merely nodded and picked up his phone as the woman stood to leave.

Truthfully, she had no actual warrant, and was merely lucky that her bluff hadn't shown and that the Headmaster had agreed.

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"Lift your shirt," the nurse requested of Fabian as he sat behind the screen. Mara had gone before him and unsurprisingly seemed to be in perfect health.

"Do you see any sign of abuse or injury?" Michelle Bridgewater the Social worker asked from the other side of the privacy screen. It had been agreed that she would only pass the screen if there were injuries to be recorded or she had the permission of the patient.

"So far he doesn't seem to have any injuries that a normal teenage boy wouldn't have," the nurse called back before telling Fabian to remove his pants. He did so, making sure his hand remained out of her sight to hide the chain shaped scar that was patterned across his palms from the frostbite.

"You'll be wanting to see this," the nurse announced, causing the social worker to nearly trip over herself as she rounded the end of the screen.

She had expected some sort of scar, but she had not expected a barely healed set of gashes that ran in a ring of five points.

"Young man, would you mind telling me how you got that injury?" Michelle asked as she pulled out her camera and began snapping pictures of the wound.

"I tripped while running with scissors," Fabian answered. It had already been agreed that no matter what was found, that none of the students would give any hint at what was really happening.

"How did you get claw marks from running with scissors?" Michelle asked, realizing that he was responding as Eddie had done twice before.

"Did I mentioned I tripped?" Fabian added, "Many, many times?"

At this point he had forgotten to keep his hand closed and put them up in a 'Whatcha gonna do?' gesture.

"Am I also, supposed to believe that those burns on your hands were an accident?" she asked solemnly, "Mr. Rutter, please realize that I'm trying to help you. You don't need to lie to me. Just tell me who is doing this to you and I'll make sure it won't happen again!"

Fabian immediately put his hands down and merely sat silently staring at the social worker who let out a frustrated sigh.

"Next!" she called to the line in the hallway as Fabian pulled his clothes back on and vacated the room.

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"Hello, Alfie Lewis?" Michelle asked kindly as she interviewed the boy that had started her investigation, "Would you like to tell me how it is you came to be covered in cuts and scrapes?"

"Sleepwalking."

"As I- What?" she stopped her continuation of the interview, "How did you get hurt sleep walking?"

"Wouldn't know I was asleep," he replied cheekily as she finished taking pictures of his nick covered back.

"Very well, you may go, send in the next student after yourself," she huffed. This was going to be a long case. She had often come in contact with children who were reluctant to talk about who had abused them, and she knew that she would just have to be patient and get to the bottom of whatever was happening in Anubis House.

Personally she was beginning to suspect the stand offish caretaker, Victor Rodenmaar.

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"Let me guess you fell down the stairs," Michelle guessed as she snapped photos of Amber Millington's scrapes and cuts, which were almost identical to Alfred Lewis'.

"Nothing so droll as that, I fell on some broken glass. You can ask Trudy, there was glass everywhere in the girl's loo from when Nina almost drow—shorted out the electricity with- her hair straightener. The light bulbs shattered. Quite a mess," Amber quickly truncated her explanation as she nearly let too much truth out.

"Tripped. In glass," the social worker muttered as she pointedly wrote down the obvious lie, "Alright then, you can get dressed, send in the next person."

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"Can you please explain to me how you have the exact same mark on your hands as Fabian Rutter, he told me that he had gotten his from accidently putting his hands on the stove," Michelle explicated, "Is that how you got yours?"

Patricia looked at her as if she had grown another head for a moment before nodding, "Oh yes, Trudy keeps telling us to stay out of the kitchen when she's cooking, bless her soul. She does her best to control us rabble rousers, but seems us kiddies can't follow even the simplest rules. I got mine when I was trying to steal cookies and accidentally put my hands on the stove."

"Well that checks out, once you're dressed tell the next person to come in."

Once the girl had left, Michelle couldn't help but think that that was the most obvious lie yet, Rutter hadn't said a word in explanation about how he had received his own burns. The girl had merely been trying to throw her off track.

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"Mr. Clark, have you noticed anything odd about the behavior of some of your fellow housemates? Where they go in their spare time for instance?" she asked Jerome. He was one of the only three students who didn't have any type of injury and her attempts at getting Joy Mercer to tell her anything had been entirely futile.

"Nope. Normal as they come, early to bed, early to rise, good people all around. If that's all, it's nearly lunch time and I'm rather famished," Jerome replied as he stood up after he finished redressing and left the room before she could even dismiss him.

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"Edison Miller-Sweet. We meet again," the social worker whispered to herself glibly as she noted the last boy on the list.

"It would seem so," the boy smirked smugly causing to her flush a little when she realized he had heard her.

"I already know you've been injured, I'm merely here to take photos for evidence. Unless of course you want to tell me who's been doing this to you and the others instead," she commented blithely.

In response he merely peeled his shirt off to show a well healed mass of scars that dotted and crisscrossed his chest.

"You were grievously injured barely a few weeks ago! These scars are MONTHS old! What on earth is going on in this place!?" she exclaimed as she nearly dropped her camera.

"Frosted Flakes, they're part of a nutritious breakfast and excellent for a healing boy," Eddie replied with a grin, though his face showed small signs of anxiety.

Twitching with each click of the camera, Michelle made sure to take as many pictures of the boy's back, front, arms and legs as the memory card on her camera would allow.

"Go!" was all she could manage without yelling. This case was going to drive her nuts if she didn't solve it soon.

Gathering up all her notes and belongings, the social worker hurriedly left the nurses office and raced to her car. There was something terribly off about this school and she was going to find out what it was.

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A/N: A really quick something to lighten the story after the last chapter.


	13. A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

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Chapter 13

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The over powering scent of disinfectant bombarded her heightened senses, forcing her sleep blurred mind into a quasi-conscious state of awareness.

Why was Trudy cleaning at this hour anyway?

Opening her eyes with a disapproving groan, ready to tell Trudy to go back to sleep, she was surprised to find that she was not in the room she shared with Amber at Anubis House, but instead in a bare, sterile room, painted shades of grey by the shine of a waxing moon as it peeked through the blinds to her left along with the more forceful orange of the street lights.

Taking in her surroundings, she realized she was in a hospital room, something she was quite acquainted with after her grans long stay in a nearly identical room the year prior.

Worry surged through her as she surveyed the room, but calmed as she was quickly met with the sight of a familiar figure, a boy, slumped sideways in a green armchair in the corner of her room, snoring lightly as he rested his head on a what looked to be a wadded up leather jacket.

"Eddie," she attempted to wake him, but was rewarded with only a dry crack of a whisper. Her throat felt like she had swallowed hot sand.

With a deep breath, she flicked a finger at the makeshift pillow under her lover's head and made a pulling motion, her eyes flashing as the aforementioned jacket flopped to the floor.

A flash of startled blue lit up his face, as his eyes shot open in surprise, "What the? Nina!" he reclaimed happily as he realized she was awake. Her face was dimly lit by the light of the quietly beeping EKG to her right, "I thought I'd lost you!" Eddie exclaimed a little too loudly.

The door to the hospital room opened, as fluorescent light flooded the previously dim room.

"Ah, Ms. Martin, you're awake. You had us rather worried there for a while," the late shift nurse smiled as she approached the young woman's bed, "How are you feeling? Any pain? Are you light headed?"

Nina gesticulated to the pitcher of water on the small table next to her bed and then continued to pantomime her need for water.

Smiling in understanding, the nurse quickly poured her a glass and handed it to her.

Greedily, the teen on the bed guzzled the water, happy to rid herself of the cracked feeling in her throat, "Thank you," she acknowledged, her voice still raspy.

"You're quite welcome. Of course, your throat is going to be rather sore for a few days so don't over-do it. You were intubated when they brought you in," the nurse explained calmly as she picked up a clip board that was attached to the end of Nina's bed, "Alright, now can you answer a few quick questions for me?"

Nina nodded to the woman.

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By the time the nurse had finished asking her questions and redressing a number of wound on her neck, collarbone and arms, the sun had turned the sky outside her window a dull grey.

Eddie, who she strongly suspected had liberally used a misdirection charm on himself, to allow him to stay long past visiting hours without the nurse questioning him on whether he was a family or not, was now curled up alongside her on the hospital bed as they watched a rather inane episode of SpongeBob.

"Heh, this episode kinda reminds me of you when you were hopped up on fear beetle juice," Eddie laughed as SpongeBob sat alone in a dark room, fearfully talking to a chip as if it were his best friend.

Nina glared at him, "I was NOT that bad! I even went to class the entire week," she pouted.

"You're right, you were worse. Spongebob never left a suicide note and tried to jump of a cliff," Eddie retorted. His tone sounded joking, but as she turned to look into his eyes she could see real pain.

Cuddling into his side, she wrapped an arm around his torso and held him tightly as she nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck.

"I'm sorry," she said simply.

She smiled slightly into his neck as he let out a deep sigh and wrapped his arms around her.

"I know you are. I don't blame you Nina, I mean, it's hardly your fault. At least you were strong enough to come out on top," he comforted as he ran a cool index finger lightly over the bandages on her arms.

Nina pulled her face back and grinned mischievously at him, "If I wasn't so sore, I'd show you how much I like to come out on top," she joked saucily.

"I am going to pretend I did not just hear that," a slightly reedy voice came from the door, causing the couple on the bed to turn at breakneck speeds.

Eddie practically jumped from the bed as if it had spontaneous transformed into burning magma.

"Mr. Sweet! Er-uh I-I was just j-joking," Nina choked in surprise and more than a little embarrassment.

"Yeah, joking. You know us Americans. Never a serious moment," Eddie added weakly.

"I'm sure," the headmaster agreed dryly, "Joking or not, it is time for school Edison. I thought I'd pick you up so you'd have time to shower and change before classes."

With that the salt-and-pepper haired man turned on his heel and left the room.

"Come along Eddy," he requested as he entered the hallway,

"I'll try to come back later," Eddie reassured her as he leaned over the bed and kissed her squarely on the lips, "When you're better you can show me more of your infatuation with being on top."

"NOW, Edison," Mr. Sweet called from hall, noticing that Eddie hadn't immediately followed, "If you don't hurry we'll be late.

Eddie ran out the door backward wiggling his eye brows suggestively as he obeyed his father, causing Nina to giggle.

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"There is _obviously_ something going on in this house," Ms. Bridgewater attested as she brandished a list of the children's different injuries at Victor, "And you can either cooperate and allow me to do my work, or I can get a court order and have the building searched."

Victor merely raised an eyebrow at the loud woman, before shutting the door in her face.

"Search warrant it is!" the social worker's reply was muffled by the wooden door between them.

The caretaker decided that he'd better get to work cleaning out the cellar and the attic of any possibly dangerous things before that annoying woman returned to legally stick her nose where it did not belong.

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"So how is she?" Amber asked concerned as they sat around the breakfast table. Classes weren't to start for another twenty minutes, allowing Eddie to make a good go of the first meal of the day.

"Shisfawn. Compwitweebcktanerma," Eddie answered around the mouthful of waffles he'd just stuck in his mouth.

"EWW, GROSS! Don't talk with your mouth full," Amber scolded with a cringe.

Swallowing his food down with the help of a generous gulp of orange juice he turned to face her, "Then don't ask a growing boy questions while he's eating," he made a childish face at her, "Anyway, I said that she's fine, completely back to normal. Other than the physical injuries, she seems better than ever; even a little frisky, if I do say so myself; she couldn't keep her hands off me."

An apple smacked him upside the head, "Ow, hey!"

Fabian just smiled from further down the table, "Oh sorry, such a butterfingers," he apologized with a smile as he picked another apple from the bowl of fruit in the center of the table, "Please, continue talking about how frisky Nina is, I'm only trying to eat."

Silence fell over the table at the awkward moment expounded.

"Sorry," Eddie mumbled.

"I'm sure you are," Fabian growled lowly as he stood up, taking his half eaten breakfast to the trash to be thrown away.

Apparently he still wasn't over his best friend sleeping with his girlfriend.

"What's his problem?" Joy asked, causing everyone to turn and look at her as if she were stupid.

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At nine O'clock on the dot, Michelle Bridgewater pressed the record button on the camera.

After seeing how quickly Edison Miller-Sweet had healed, she wanted to make sure she got the evidence she needed as soon as possible.

"Ms. Martin, in your own words, can you tell me how it is that you received these injuries. Please answer seriously," Ms. Bridgewater began, "Were you sexually assaulted?"

For a moment Michelle could have sworn the girls eyes flashed purple as she looked away nervously.

"You were weren't you? You don't have to be ashamed. Just tell me who did this to you and I'll make sure they spend a very long time behind bars," she attempted to comfort. It seemed this girl was going to be the break in the case.

Nina Martin snorted derisively.

"I was not raped if that is what you mean, so I am afraid I must inform you that there is no one for you to apprehend. Are we done here?" Nina asked icily. Her blue eyes were like stone chips, a look she'd seen in war hardened soldiers; soldiers who had seen and experienced thing no one should have to witness.

Her eyes looked old.

"I see," she said calmly. Perhaps if she knew there was a good chance that the police would catch the guy, perhaps then she would cooperate, "Before we continue, I'd like to tell you that we did find foreign tissue in the bite mark on your shoulder and under your finger nails. You fought the man off didn't you? Even if he didn't violate you, even trying anything without your consent is illegal. With the DNA _and _anaffidavit of what happened and any information you can give about him, we would stand a very good chance of catching whoever it was that did this to you."

The blonde teenager merely rolled her eyes in response, "Good luck with that, just don't be disappointed when nothing comes up."

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Michelle Bridgewater was at a loss.

No matter what she did, or who she talked to, she hadn't found a single lead. In fact, it was almost as if the children didn't want to be helped; and not just out of some weird fear of their abuser. No, it was something else.

The children of Anubis House were hiding something, and it seemed that all of the students were in on keeping the secret.

With a sigh she decided that it was time to start organizing the evidence she had collected over the last few days.

Connecting the digital camera to the USB tether, she quickly downloaded the multitude of pictures and recorded interviews.

This normally uneventful task took a turn for the weird when she started consolidating the photos of Fabian Rutter.

Squinting at the thumbnail of the picture, she noticed a difference. Something that hadn't been their when she took the photo. Breathlessly, Michelle double clicked the photo until it enlarged.

It was the picture of Fabian's leg. A picture that when taken, had only five gouge marks; now contained a shadowy, almost tattoo like image of the Eye of Horus within the ring of wounds.

How?

What did it mean? How and why had it shown up in the photo? Was it a trick of the light or was there something very different going on?

Hurriedly, she reopened the folder of images and started shuffling through the photos, searching for any sign of the strange symbol.

Patricia Williams.

It was a picture of Patricia's scarred palms, but where the odd burn marks had been, there were now shadowy tattoos of a lioness' head with an orb and a snake as a headdress.

More than a little confused, she decided to open a tab of Mozilla Firefox and search for answers.

Once the Google homepage popped up, she typed a description of the odd symbol. "lioness head with orb and snake".

Nothing; just pictures of snakes or lions.

A thought struck her as she remembered the other symbol; the so obviously Egyptian symbol.

"Egyptian lioness head with orb and snake", she amended.

The first picture that popped up was a statue; a statue with an exact likeness to the symbol on both of Patricia's hands. Another double click bought her to a site about 'goddesses of the ancient world'. Skimming through the article she finally stopped at the picture that had led her there, it was captioned 'Sekhmet, Lion Goddess of the Egyptians, daughter and Eye of Ra, wearing a Sun Disk above her head'.

Making note of the decidedly Egyptian motif, she returned to perusing the evidence file.

Edison Miller-Sweet

It was enormous. It was much more than just a small symbol like the others.

Emblazoned across the back of the blonde haired boy was the expected yet still inexplicable crocodile bite.

However, like the other photos, there was something different, something that had not been on the boys back when the picture was taken.

An Ankh; a shadowy black ankh, was tattooed across his golden skin from the nape of his neck to the base of his spine and stretched horizontally across his shoulder blades until the arms reached the beginning of his arms. The black of the mark seemed to absorb all light; almost as if it were an endless chasm in the skin of his back.

Shivering she moved to the next picture, hoping that it would calm her. It only caused her to shudder more.

It was a full body picture of Eddie Miller, but instead of a green-eyed teenager, who had been smiling in the original picture, there was an identical man with glowing blue eyes.

Deep puncture wounds dribbled blood down his toned abdomen. The lips of the still picture were turned down in a grimace of pain.

Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and then reopened them.

The picture was of a smiling blonde, green-eyed boy.

Clicking back to the prior picture, she was astonished to find absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

She went back even further. Nothing! All of the previously marked pictures were perfectly normal.

What on earth was going on?

Continuing her search of the evidence she pressed play on the video file that contained the interview with Nina Martin from earlier that day.

She nearly fell out of her chair when the girl's eyes flashes purple.

The words were normal. They were still what they had been earlier, but over the interview was a whisper.

"Run while you still can."

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A/N: sorry about the wait. Please Review, every time I get writers block I read the most recent reviews and get motivated. It's hard to get motivated if I keep reading the same reviews over and over.


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